The Two Newbies
by sunflower13
Summary: Two new girls arrive on the team. This is their story. Mainly OC focused. Kaldur/fem.OC and Robin/fem. OC Rated T just to be sure, and I don't really know the ratings anyway. Also I'm bad at summaries. Please just read.
1. Chapter 1

**Sorry if your alert went off Tuesday, I was just adjusting a few things. Also, I'm sorry about just the profiles, I missed that when I read the rules. I'm still new to all of this, so give me a break. Sorry about the wait, I just had a lot to do this week.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice, or there would be a lot more magic. And Spitfire.**

**Tori's POV**

"Gah!" I gasped as I finally walked up the fifth flight of stairs. There had been a large crowd in the elevator, and since I have trust issues I decided not to go there. As if on cue, the crowd of people from the elevator and blocked the way to my dad's hospital room. I growled, "OKAY PEOPLE IF YOU DON'T HEAR THIS, TOO BAD! IF YOU DON'T MOVE OUT OF MY WAY I'M GOING TO KNOCK YOU DOWN, AND I DON'T CARE WHETHER YOU'RE HEALTHY OR SICK! SO MOVE!"

Everyone ignored me. _"Didn't think it'd come to this,"_ I thought. I pulled my lucky necklace out, put the whistle on it to my lips, and blew. The reaction was instant, and everyone cleared the way. "Thank you," I said as I walked by and into my father's room. There was a doctor in there. I flashed my purple mark on my neck. It resembled a sphere with three X's in the center. It glowed slightly. He flashed his red mark back. You see, my dad and I aren't humans. We're Shadowlanders, from the planet Shadowland. We're also umbra kinetics, which means we can control darkness. I'm still a beginner, but my powers aren't completely locked. The only thing different is that I don't have a shadow, and when I do, it reflects my thoughts instead of holding my shape.

"Your father, Kevin Reeds, wanted me to do this for him," the doctor said. He held out his hand and gestured to my necklace.

"Wait, he's not here?" I questioned taking the necklace off and handing it to him.

"No, I'm afraid you've just missed him. His injuries were so severe that we had to send him back to Shadowland. But you can go see him. All you have to do is teleport there. Simple." I couldn't bring myself to tell him that I couldn't teleport yet. I was still too upset that my father wasn't here.

"Now before you get upset… how about I unlock the rest of your powers."

"What?"

"Just say this," the doctor said as he handed me a slip of paper with writing on it.

"Heinzt mraicht frie heil," I chanted it three times in Shadowlander, our native language. Then, my necklace began to transform. My whistle started glowing purple, and transformed into a glowing spiral diamond. As the light died, the diamond turned black with purple streaks. I recognized it; every adult on Shadowland had one. It was a zei stone.

"Uh, thanks," I said before I turned and left.

"You're welcome," he said with a cheery voice.

As I began to walk outside I fingered the new charm in admiration. My dad had had one, it protected him from the sun. As I was examining my new accessory, a realization hit me like a ton of bricks.

"Our…our apartment!" I gasped. I turned and ran in the direction towards our apartment.

"I-can't-it's-too-far," I said, trying to get oxygen into my lungs. I tried looking through a book of notes about Shadowlanders that I had kept with me. I came to a page about creating small objects out of shadows with my mind.

"Okay Torrance, focus," as I imagined something small, a skateboard maybe. Suddenly, a black skateboard appeared on the ground.

"Whoa," I said. My eyes widened in amazement as I looked it over.

"Well since you'll be the closest thing I have to a friend in the next few days, I should name you. Hmmmmm….how about Bandersnatch?" Silver letters scrawled the words across the bottom of the board. _"Awesome,"_ I thought. I threw the board on the ground and started towards my destination. I felt slightly tired, but at least I wouldn't pass out before I reached the apartment.

"Aw, no!" I said as I stared at the ruins from this morning's events. So the fire had taken away my home, my school (I'm homeschooled), and my dad.

"I could've helped, if only I hadn't been at the store." Tears began to sting the backs of my eyes, making my frustration worse.

"DANG IT!" I yelled, kicking a telephone pole. I sighed. Now what would Dad say? He would probably tell me not to let my emotions cloud my judgment.

"Now what will I do?" I wondered. Well, Dad had decided to be a hero and help the humans, so that's what I would be too. I decided the best thing to do was to remember what heroes lived around here, and how to teleport short distances. _"Well this is Gotham. There's Joker, Penguin, and Mr. Freeze, but they're all villains. Wait, it's Batman and…who is it…oh, Robin. That's all. They're the people I'm going to have to watch. I already know how to fight, but watching others wouldn't hurt."_

"Okay, now for teleportation." I picked up a piece of metal from the rubble and scratched an X on the ground for Point A, then walked about five feet away and scratched another X on the ground for Point B. It took a while, but with a lot of crashing into poles and landing in dumpsters, I finally managed to teleport from Point A to Point B. I then practiced this until I could do it twenty times in a row without any mistakes. I caught a glimpse of myself in a cracked mirror.

"Well, all superheroes need a costume, but I'm kind of low on money." I checked my pockets. I had about twenty bucks, which could feed me for about a week if I only ate ramen noodles. I snapped my fingers. "Of course! I'll make myself a costume!" I focused on making a long black cloak with a hood. I walked around in it but immediately tripped. _"Okay, shorter and lighter,"_ I thought. I focused and the extra cloth melted back into the shadows. I walked over to the mirror.

"Much better," I said as I looked at my reflection. As I peered into the mirror I no longer saw Torrance Reeds, but instead a hero.


	2. Chapter 2

**Here's the second chapter, I'm so excited!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice. Obviously.**

**Kate's POV**

I opened my eyes slightly to see that I was in a cage.

"What in the world happened?" I muttered while rubbing my head. The room I was being held in was cold and very dark. If it weren't for the candles on the walls I would've been shrouded in black. I sighed and closed my eyes, trying to remember what happened. Flashes of horrid images filled my mind. My room was on fire; I ran out and tried to find my family. My mother called for me and told me to get out of the house. I guessed she had my dad and little brother with her. I thought it had been a gas leak that had exploded or something, but of course I was wrong. There was a group of oddly assorted men waiting outside. There was also a large machine. It had been placed in front of the escape route my family had planned in case of this type of emergency.

"Kate! Kate help us, we need you!" My little brother's final words were almost drowned out by the screams of my parents being burned alive.

"Mom! Dad! Gary! I'm coming!"

"Uh, uh, uh. We can't have that now, can we?" a strange voice said behind me. I grabbed a knife from my sleeve, but before I could do anything, something was injected into my neck. My vision began to grow hazy, and I passed out.

Now I'm in this cage and my family is dead. I shed a tear, but quickly wiped it away. _"Come on Kate, you've got to be strong and get out of here,"_ I thought. Suddenly an enormous flood of light busted into the room, causing me to shield my eyes.

"So our test subject has awakened. Perfect." _"That man's voice. He's the one who did this,"_ I thought.

"I am Dr. Mark Desmond. You are to be our new testing subject for our Superboy clone. My eyes widened. _"Superboy? That doesn't sound right. SuperMAN maybe, but not Superboy. Either way this doesn't sound good at all."_ Dr. Desmond walked closer and peered into my cage. I spat into his eye. He looked like he was about to curse, but then he laughed.

"You'll regret that when your skull is about to get bashed in," he chuckled and opened the door out. Before he left he turned and said, "Oh, and don't think we forgot about your knives." Then he walked out, leaving me in darkness again. I patted my arms and legs, but only to be disappointed that my knives really were gone. I sighed. "Great….wait a minute!" I took off my left shoe and pulled a part of the sole back. "Hmmm, didn't take all of them, did you?" I said with a grin. I focused on summoning my magic, and then made a slashing motion with the blade. "Yes, I'm free!" I cheered/whispered. I felt a wave of exhaustion. _"That stuff they put in me must still be taking effect,"_ I thought. _"I had better hurry up and escape."_ I yanked the door open and literally began running for my life. And alarm sounded and a computer-generated voice said, "Experiment K-08 is escaping." A bunch of men in lab coats began chasing me. I focused and flung my hand out. A wall of silver magic sprang up between me and them. It was actually somewhat amusing to see them act like bugs around a bug zapper. No matter how many people get shocked by the wall, someone else thinks they can break through it by running at it. I began laughing until I myself hit a wall-like figure.

"Where do you think you're going?" asked a man with a deep voice who looked like he belonged on a football field, not a laboratory. I dodged around him, and ran through a door. I was in a stairwell. I focused and began quickly levitating upwards. I was nearly unconscious I was so tired by the time I reached the top, but I knew I had to keep going. I ran out an emergency only door, and kept running until I reached a forest. I knew I was about to pass out, so I quickly took shelter under a tree and put up a magic shield with the last of my energy. My vision began to blur like it did during the fire, but before my eyes closed I could've sworn I saw my family's faces, unhurt and beautiful. I sighed again and drifted off.

**Zatara's POV**

I was on patrol when I spotted a girl underneath a tree in the forest below me.

"What's that?" I muttered to myself.

I decided to check it out. I floated down to the tree and cautiously walked towards the girl. She was dirty, and her blonde hair was a mess. She appeared to have many cuts and scars.

_"She's hurt. I had better bring her somewhere safe,"_ I thought.

I walked towards the girl, but as I reached forward to pick up the girl, some invisible force was stopped me.

"What?" I said. "She has some kind of magical shield around her!"

I touched the shield. There was a flash of silver, and then the shield shattered. I gently picked up the girl.

"Huh?" she said, opening her gray-blue eyes slightly.

"Who are you? Where is your family?" I asked because it looked like she was about to pass out again. A tear escaped her eye.

"Kate. Dead. They're all dead," she rasped, then fell asleep once more.

_"I need to take her somewhere safe. But where? Zatanna is already giving me gray hair; I can't take on another child. Of course! I'll take her to Mount Justice! She obviously has some sort of magic, and she's an orphan. She may want to join the team." _I thought.

"The fire," the girl whispered in her sleep. "Run, or the fire will get you," she said sadly.

"Hush, child you're safe now," I said gently. I flew off towards the mountain.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey, sorry I've taken so long. I was going to do a chapter from Tori's POV, but when I reread it, I hated it. I've been meaning to rewrite it, but between exams and rehearsals, I haven't had the time. So the next two chapters will be from Tori's POV, and then we'll be back to alternating between the two POVs.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice, only Kate and Tori **

**Kate's POV**

_"I can't believe I'm going to finally meet the team! I hope I get along with everyone,"_ I thought before I stepped through the zeta tube. I had been resting at Zatara's house for a few months now. It had taken me a while to get over my family's deaths. I was grateful to Zatara for letting me stay as long as I wanted, but I would be glad to be moving out. I always felt a little awkward when he and Zatanna argued. Which they did almost constantly. I usually stayed in my room, so I didn't see a lot of Zatanna. The few impressions I had of Zatanna was that she was very confident in herself, and a flirt. Not that her father would ever let her flirt.

I stepped out the other side of the zeta tube. The team, or who I assumed was the team, was waiting for me. There was a red-headed boy, a short black-haired boy, a blonde girl, a green-skinned girl, a dark-skinned boy, and a tall black-haired boy.

"Hi," I said quietly. "I'm Kate." The green-skinned girl stepped forward.

"Hey I'm Megan! We're so excited to meet you! That's Wally, Robin, Artemis, and Kaldur," pointing to each one in turn. "And this is Superboy," she finished.

My eyes widened. _"Su…superboy? As in the one Dr. Desmond created? The one I got kidnapped for? The one my family died for?"_ I thought. It was too much. I turned and ran. I raced through the hallways blindly, not caring where I went. I just needed to get away. I stopped suddenly in my tracks. I had felt a strong magical force coming from one of the rooms. I turned around and walked into the room I felt the force from. It was kind of small, with lots of empty shelves. There was one shelf with things on it though. I walked closer. There was a red hood, an empty slot, a golden helmet, a grinning cat mask, and was that a metal eyeball? The golden helmet was where the magical force was coming from. _"Hello?"_ I thought, reaching out with my magic.

_"Hello child,"_ was the reply. I gasped. _"No need to fear me," _the voice said.

"_Who are you?"_ I thought.

"_My name is Kent Nelson."_

"_Why are you in that helmet?"_

"_I agreed to keep Dr. Fate company for a while before going on to my afterlife."_

"_Oh."_

"_If I may ask my dear, why are you here?"_

"_I'm supposed to join the team, but I panicked when I met Superboy."_

"_Why is that?"_

"_My family died because of him."_

"_Really? I never heard in Wally's mind that Superboy had killed anyone."_

"_Wally's mind? Never mind, I don't want to know. He didn't kill my family directly. The people who created him wanted to see how well he could fight, and chose me as the test subject. They set my house on fire. I made it out, but my family didn't."_

"_You know Superboy had no say in what happened to you."_

"_I do. I just panicked when I heard his name."  
>"Explain what happened and apologize. I've heard Superboy can be nice, if you give him the chance."<em>

"_I will. Thank you."_

"_You're welcome child."_

"_May I ask a favor?"_

"_Yes."_

"_When you go on to your afterlife, can you tell my family that I said hi?"_

"_Of course dear. Now I believe you have an apology to make?"_

"_Thank you. Good-bye."_

**Third Person**

The team was huddled in a circle.

"Someone needs to go after her," Robin whispered.

"I'm not. I don't do well with upset girls," Wally quickly said.

"And you don't do well with girls in any other mood either," Artemis quipped.

"Hey!" Wally shouted.

"Back to matter at hand. Someone needs to go find Kate," Kaldur quickly ended the brewing argument.

"I could go look for her," Megan volunteered.

"No need, I'm right here," A voice came from behind them. They spun around and saw Kate in the hallway. "I'm really sorry for running away like that. It's just that my family died when these scientists kidnapped me. They were the scientists who created Superboy. They wanted to use me as a test subject to see how well he could fight. When I heard his name I just freaked out. I'm sorry," she said.

"It's okay, we understand," Megan said, enveloping Kate in a hug. The rest of the team gathered around.

"So why don't you tell us about yourself, sweet thing?" Wally said, wrapping his arm around Kate's shoulders.

"Well first off, I don't like it when random guys I don't know hit on me," Kate said, sliding out from underneath Wally's arm. Robin cracked up.

"Dude!" Wally said.

"I'm a mage. I'm a healer and a warrior," Kate said.

"What does that mean?" Artemis asked.

"I can heal people and animals, read their auras, and shape my magic to fight with. I also have enhanced endurance and flexibility," Kate replied. "However, I can't heal myself, the more magic I use, the less energy I have, and I can't use my magic at all if I lose my stone," she said, holding out her arm so everyone could see her bracelet with the stone on it.

"So what can you do in hand-to-hand combat?" asked Robin.

"I'm an experienced knife fighter, my dad wanted to make sure I could always protect myself," Kate said. "Can you tell me about yourselves?" she asked.

"Yeah, I have super speed, I'm a science genius, and I'm quite the catch, or so I've heard," Wally said.

"Who did you hear that from, your grandma?" Artemis snorted, and Kate giggled. "I'm an archer," Artemis continued.

"I'm a Martian, obviously, and I have telepathy, telekinesis, and can shape shift," Megan said.

"Super strength, hearing, sight, and jump," Superboy grunted.

"I have control over water, and can shock people with my electric eel tattoos," Kaldur said.

"I can hack, fight, and I am an expert acrobat," Robin finished.

"It's nice to meet you all," Kate said.

**And that's the end. I know I haven't mentioned this before, but please review. Because I only have two reviews. And I'm not that good at reading my story traffic, but I know a lot more than two people have read my story. So please review. I don't care if you love it or hate it (in which case why are you still reading it?) just tell me. Bye!**


	4. Chapter 4

"Okay Tori, you can do this." At the moment I was cheering myself on in a life or death situation. Literally. I was about to diffuse a bomb from inside a hotel. Luckily I had managed to evacuate the building with the help of a small fire, a lot of smoke and my yelling voice. (A/N: if you're wondering why she went with fire instead of telling people it was a bomb. It was because people are slightly calmer when the situation is a natural occurrence rather than something that could kill everyone.) That was easy. Deciding whether to clip the red wire and the green wire together or clip the blue and yellow stripped wire after clipping the green wire was hard. I was able to scavenge a pocket knife from the rubble of my former home, and used it to expose the wires on each cable. I decided to go with the blue and yellow striped wire, and flipped to the small scissor part of the pocketknife.

"Stop! Clip the stripped wire and it'll detonate!" a gruff voice commanded from behind me. I whirled around.

"Didn't I say to evacua-, "I stopped after seeing I was yelling at Batman and Robin. A sharp ticking sound from the timer strapped on the bomb brought my attention back to the situation at hand. "So, which wire?"

"The orange," He said with the same monotonous voice.

"Orange wi-? Oh." I quickly snipped the wire I hadn't noticed before. The timer stopped and the bomb gave a hiss like air being released out of a tire. "Phew." I stood up.

"So, uh thanks I guess, but I got to go before the people realize that there was no fire. So, Tata."

I created a portal under my feet and fell through to my other portal which was slightly above the ground near my make-shift shelter. I gave a sigh. _Those guys were cool and all, but-_

"So this is where you live," My thoughts were interrupted by a young boys comment. I slowly turned around to see that the boy wonder was right next to me. I immediately went into freak out mode.

"How did you-? But when-? You don't have-? Arrgh! How'd you follow me?" I screamed at him. Unlike his mentor he gave off the jokester type sense. He smirked and held up his wrist he was wearing the pair of hand cuffs which were also connected to… me. I gave Robin a look that said: _When I get out of these you're so dead ._He gave a chuckle and actually it was kinda cute. _What the heck. No Tori. Bad! BAD! BAAAAAAADDDDDDD! He handcuffed you, so now you can't teleport away and you think he's cute. _My brain began banging itself against a mental wall. _No! NO!NOOOOOOO!_

"We'll have to take you to the Batcave for questioning."

"Gyaah," I nearly had a heart attack from Batman stepping out of the darkness. I shouldn't have been surprised since I've seen him do it so many times against major criminals. _Oh great. Now you sound like a stalker too._ I hung my head, but perked up at the sound of Batcave. _Awesome I get to go _inside_ the Batcave._ My hopes were crushed when a blind fold was placed over my eyes.

"Aww." I groaned as I was led to a car.

"So why am I still handcuffed to her?"

"Because she might try to escape before we're through questioning her." There was something about Batman's voice that was familiar. I wondered and decided to formulate a plan.

"You know I can see through this blind fold, and your masks," I said smugly.

"What?" Robin's voice was hysterical.

"She's bluffing," Batman said in his same one octave voice.

"Oh," Robin sighed and I could sense him relaxing. _That's it._

"You know," I said confident in who they were now, "I may now be the sharpest knife in the kitchen, but I do know who you are."

"Reeeeaaaally?" Robin said totally not believing me. I could sense he was too close for comfort so I shoved his face away.

"Yeeeeees," I said with the same tone of voice.

"Well?" Was it just me or did Bat's voice sound … curious.

"Well, Mr. Chuckles here is Richard Grayson, so that makes you Bruce Wayne." I smiled seeing how Robin's side of the hand cuffs jerked away slightly. "Yeah, I'm right."

Unexpectedly Robin began laughing. "Wow, you're waaaaay off. Like by-"

"You do realize the more you speak the more you confirm my accusations, right?" The car was silent for a few seconds.

"Torrance Reeds. Daughter of Keven Reeds also known as Kervaliten from the planet of Shadowland. After recent incidents your father had to return to Shadow land from serious injuries correct?" Bat man asked.

"Stupid supercomputer," I muttered, and once again Robin laughed. The car stopped, and once again I was led someplace else. The area around became colder and I snuggled into my "cloak".

"Welcome back, Master-. Oh, it seems you have a guest," an unfamiliar voice echoed. My blind fold was taken off and I looked around. _Batcave._ I smirked. Suddenly my stomach gave a loud roar followed by a grumble and a gurgle sound.

"Hello to you too," Robin said with a smile.

"Good heavens when was the last time you ate?" The new man asked me with a lot more concern than Robin.

"Well, if today's Thursday… one….two…. yeah, four days ago." I replied honestly. I looked at the man who was looking at Batman. Judging by how he was dressed I guess he was the butler. Batman turned to robin, and then they all turned to me.

"Uh, w-what?" I was beginning to get nervous from all these eyes.

"The question is, would you like to join our team?" Robin asked a grin still on his face. I shrugged.

"Sure why not?"


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey everyone. I finished the next chapter. Obviously. About the show: I don't want to spoil anything, but all I can say is that those were the best two episodes ever! And I hoped none of you were attached to the profiles because I'm deleting them because A: they're against the rules, and B: half the stuff on there I've changed. I hope you're happy Ballpoints and Balloons! Anyhow, here's the next chapter. **

**Kate's POV**

"I hope that special help Robin was talking about earlier would hurry up!" Artemis growled. Artemis, Robin, and I were currently suspended by a chain hook and were slowly being lowered into blazing hot lava. Robin was unfortunately unconscious while Artemis and my weapons had been taken away rendering us helpless. "I think I'm getting sunburn from all this heat."

"Um Artemis," I said, "I think sunburns will be the least of your concerns in a few moments."

While Artemis went into a frenzy of screaming, "Robin wakes up! We're gonna die!" I tried to formulate a plan to get out of this situation. Suddenly the power shut down and cut back on.

"What was that!" gasped Gepetto, the mastermind behind our kidnapping.

"Maybe it was Robin," I murmured, but I was proven wrong when I saw Robin was still unconscious.

"Hmm," hummed Gepetto as he began checking the security monitor screens. There were six of them and all of them were glowing. "Release the Pinocchio drones." Gepetto gave out an order over the loudspeaker. His Pinocchio drones were a bunch of large robots that had captured them in the first place. There were at least three of the 20 foot drones stationed on every screen.

"What the-. " Gepetto looked over at the screen on the top right corner. It began to flicker and finally shut down. A small bird emblem began to glow. The screen flashed back to life and what appeared on the screen was what could only be described as a robot massacre. Robot pieces were scattered around severed limbs far from the rest of the body. A dark figure darted from the first screen and appeared on the second. The process repeated itself until the figure had destroyed all the robots and was no longer on any of the screens.

"Where is she? Where is she!" Gepetto screamed.

"Apparently our cavalry has arrived," Artemis said with a smirk.

"Ha, the joke's on you. This room is completely sealed off from the rest of the building." Gepetto began to laugh that cheesy laugh that sticks with all the villains in cartoons from the 1900's. Then another voice's laughter that filled the air.

"Well, looks who's woken up," I said with a grin.

"Yeah, sorry about that guys. But, now that Sparrow's here we should be feeling the aster." Just as he said that the chains stopped moving and our doom was halted.

"So, how's she going to get us out of this situation? The entrance is sealed off."

Robin laughed again. "She doesn't need an entrance to get in." His riddle left me puzzle and as I thought about it a shadowy figure appeared out of the ground. A girl in purple and black tights it a hooded mask and a silver utility belt stood behind Gepetto as he frustratedly pounded the monitors. The girl pulled a rag out of her utility belt and placed it over the villain's mouth and nose. He was out cold in a matter of seconds.

"Now if you can help us out," Artemis said.

"Of course," the girl rapidly appeared in front of us. A black scythe I hadn't noticed before was in her hand and came down on the chain. A black portal appeared below us as we began to descend. We appeared on the floor again after being dumped out of a second portal.

"Sorry about that," the girl said helping the trio up. "I'm Sparrow." A wide grin spread across her face.

"We should probably head back and have the League deal with Gepetto," I said gesturing towards the now unconscious man.

"I'll contact Batman," robin said already fiddling with gadgets on his arm.

Sparrow just stood there kind of awkwardly for a few moments before turning around and exiting with Artemis, Robin, and I in tow.


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey everyone! So don't be mad at me, I know I haven't updated in a while. But don't blame me, blame school. But now I'm free, so updates should, in theory, come faster. I say in theory because I can't promise anything for all of June. June is the busiest month right now. So now without further ado, here's the new chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice, Cartoon Network does. I also don't own Louie the Lilac or his henchman. You'll see. But I do own Kate and Tori. **

**Kate's POV**

"Can't this thing go any faster?" I had to yell to even get my voice out of my throat. At the moment Sparrow and I were riding on some strange shadow beast she had conjured up. We could have taken the motorcycles, but Sparrow said this would be good practice for her powers. Not wanting to be rude I just nodded. Now I was riding on what looked like a giant wolf. My comment was meant to be sarcastic but the look sparrow gave me was serious. That suddenly changed and a big grin spread across her face.

"You're too heavy," she said with a short laugh, "jump off and Bandersnatch will run faster."

"WHAT?" I nearly screamed at the thought of jumping off. "Bandersnatch" was almost twice the size of wolf and at the speed we were going if I jumped off the force of gravity would crush me.

"Sheesh If you're going to be so reluctant," she said with a bored yet mischievous tone in her voice. Before I could react Sparrow kicked me off. At first I was in total shock. Then, I began screaming for my life. Right before I hit the ground large talons swooped down and caught me. Bandersnatch had now turned into a falcon. Sparrow was sitting on top with what appeared to be reins. A random black chain wrapped around my waist and pulled me to the top with sparrow. It fastened around me and held me secure.

"You alright?" she asked and took a short backwards glance at me.

"DON'T YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN! I COULD HAVE DIED!" I screamed. This wasn't my normal behavior but under certain circumstances I was brought to this.

"Gosh, have a little faith. Bandersnatch caught you didn't he," she said patting the bird affectionately.

"And if he'd missed?"

"Well, I would have created a shadow portal under you and teleported you up here." Even though her words were calm I was still freaking out. _ This first initiation mission isn't going how I wanted at all._ I gave a short groan.

Sparrow and I were on a mission to stop this criminal called Louie the Lilac. Yes, no joke that is what he called himself. When Sparrow heard this she nearly flipped a table and yelled, "What! Seriously. SERIOUSLY!" But after receiving a death glare from batman and hearing about how he had man-eating lilacs she seemed to calm down. Now we were searching for a purple convertible to lead us to the hothouse where said man-eating plants were kept along with plants that could make people pass out by breathing in the scent.

"Found it," Sparrow said knocking me out of my trance. "Hold on." The chains around my waist tightened and the bird's wings drew in. in the distance I saw a building and we were diving towards it at an alarming speed. I suppressed a scream and shut my eyes. When I opened them we were on the roof. The chains dropped and Sparrow hopped off. The edges of her cape making her silhouette like a bird. I jumped down also and we crept over to a window. We both peered inside and saw that the whole place was set up like a green house. Except for a small area where there was a door. Henchmen were spread around the place. By their profiles we knew who they all were.

"Azalea, Acacia, Arbutus, Petunia, Lotus, Saffron, Lila, and Sassafras, but no Louie," I whispered.

"He must be in that room," Sparrow said. "I'll take the henchmen you get Louie."

"But how are we going to stop the flowers?"

"You see that air conditioning unit?" She pointed to a small box. "If you break it with one of your knives the room should get a lot colder and the plants should die." I nodded in agreement, although I began regretting wearing my loose fitting clothes, but now wasn't the time for that.

"Now get ready to teleport." Sparrow said. "Oh and remember to cover your mouth and not breath in the gas." I nodded once more before we both teleported away. I only had a glimpse but from what I saw Sparrow wasn't relying much on her powers but instead on her utility belt that surprisingly I hadn't realized before. It was purple and looked a lot like Robin's huh, but something was off. _Focus Kate! Focus!_ Right. I searched the room and found the AC unit again and threw two knives at it. The first cut down the plant blocking the way and the second broke the glass on the box.

"What was that?" yelled Lila right before she was punched in the face and pulled back into the fight. I quickly ran to the door of the room in the corner and threw it open. In surprise Louie jumped up from a planning desk. He sprayed something from a flower in his pocket. I guess it was one of the two gases, so I pulled my shirt over my face. I focused on my magic. My stone began glowing and I moved a plant that was in the corner in front of Louie and force it to spew a gas into his face. His eyes rolled back and he fell unconscious. I focused again, and made a cell out of vines to hold him and levitated with me back to the greenhouse part of the building. Tori kicked the last of the goons into the wall and he too passed out. She turned back towards me.

"Great you've got a cage." She smiled and black circles appeared under all the henchmen and on top the cage all the gang seemed to fit neatly in the cage and I dropped it on the ground. There were a few groans and yelps but overall the room was silent. All the plants had died just like they were supposed to.

"Mission accomplished,' Sparrow said raising her hand in a high five. A grin spread across her face. I met her high-five with a small laugh.

"Yeah."

**So, you like? Hope so. Tell me in a review! Pretty please review!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey ya'll! Well the friend I'm co-writing this with came down for a visit since she lives in a different state, and we managed to write three chapters! Woot! However, since I am a big meanie, I'm only going to put a chapter up once a week. However, I have good reason for it. This gives us more time to write another chapter, especially since she's horrible about checking her email. But without further ado, here's the new chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice, I just own Kate, and I'm partially responsible for Tori.**

Tori's POV

I walked through the zeta tube into Mount Justice.

"_Sparrow, B09,"_ the machine announced. I blinked, my mind not comprehending what was in front of me. It was Kaldur and Kate, both in swimsuits.

"There you are! Are you ready?" Kate asked.

"Ready for what?" I questioned looking at the blonde skeptically.

"Your swimming lesson!" she practically shrieked.

"Tone down the excitement, you nearly busted my eardrum. Why do I need a swimming lesson?"

"Robin told us you can't swim because all the water on your planet is ice because it's so cold!" she replied. I turned and gave a well-earned batglare to Robin, who was leaning against the far wall. He just chuckled and disappeared.

"I'm gonna kill you!" I shouted after him. Somehow deep down I knew telling him that kind of stuff about both me and my planet was a bad idea, but I knew he'd find out about it sooner or later. Before I could run away, Kate grabbed my arm.

"We got a swimsuit for you!" she said cheerily.

A wave of dread washed over me. _"Oh no. Please tell me Kate did not pick out some sort of flowery, bright, and cheery swimsuit with sweet little smiling bunny rabbits, rainbows, and sunshine,"_ I thought while muttering to myself about how this was going to be a seriously bad idea. Fortunately for me the swimsuit wasn't that bad. It was a white bikini top with a black surf shirt and black surf shorts. A purple skull and crossbones decorated the hem of the left leg on the shorts.

**Forty-five minutes later**

We all stepped out into the sunlight clad with our towels and other swim gear. I hissed slightly at the brightness of the sun. I was glad that Kate said that I could keep my necklace on otherwise none of this would be possible. I looked back at the sun again. Somehow it was like the beach made it seem even more beautiful. My two companions must have noticed my delay because both came back and snapped me out of my daze.

"It is not wise to look directly at the sun," Kaldur said. Both he and Kate had a worried expression on their face.

"Okay. Um, sorry," I said walking towards the shoreline. I let the water wash over both my feet and smiled a bit, thankful that it wasn't too cold.

"Come on Sparrow! Let's go!" said Kate and Kaldur encouragingly. They had both somehow placed all of our stuff down and gotten into the water without me noticing.

"No! I'm not going!" I shouted remembering the movie Jaws. "What if there's a shark?"

Kate gave me a look of annoyance. "If there was a shark, Kaldur would take care of it."

I gave them a look. "Fine, but you better not let me drown!"

"We won't!" they said simultaneously. Kaldur even made this weird motion like the Boy Scout salute.

"Are you sure there aren't any sharks?" I asked.

"What did I say about the sharks? Now put your face under the water, it'll help," Kate instructed. I reluctantly put my face in the water. Unfortunately, I forgot it was saltwater and opened my eyes. I shouted, and gulped a mouthful of water. I began flailing around, and then surfaced, still flailing like an idiot. Kate and Kaldur laughed at me, and I gave them a red-eyed glare.

"Don't worry, it only stings the first time…I think," Kate said. This proved to be a lie. I finally just kept my eyes closed whenever I came up and hope for the best.

"First we'll start with the breaststroke. Put your hands in front of you; then push out and to the side, cupping the water. Like this," Kate demonstrated.

"Okay," I said. I stuck my head under the water and repeated the steps. I had issues with it at first, but soon got the rhythm of the stroke. When I came up for air, Kate shrieked "Yay!" and grabbed me into a hug. Kaldur gave me a solemn "congratulations". Kate rolled her eyes, and pulled Kaldur into the hug as well. Their weight was starting to push me into water.

"Liars! You said you weren't going to try and drown me!" I said with a small laugh.

"We should be heading back; it's starting to get dark," Kaldur stated.

"Race you to the shore!" Kate said. I knew I was going to come in last, but that wouldn't stop me from trying.

"You're on!" I replied, and we all headed to shore.

**oooooooooooo**

"Guess who's spending the night at Mount Justice!" Wally said as he walked into the living room. "He's got red hair, tons of girls after him, and great looks!"

"It must not be you, because last time I checked, those last two things aren't you," Artemis quipped.

"Hey!" Wally shouted. "They are too true!"

"Oh yeah? Then how come you haven't got Megan to kiss you yet?"

Wally sputtered for a minute. I knew where this was headed and walked into the kitchen. Robin was pouring a glass of milk.

"You know that's expired right?" I told him.

"Suuuurrrreeee," he replied, then took a big gulp of the milk. He quickly spat it out and made all sorts of funny faces.

I snorted. "Told you I would get you. By the way, do you know where Megan is?"

"I think she's in her room," was the answer. I walked to Megan's room and knocked on the door.

"Come in!"

"Hey Megan. Do you think we could have a sleepover here tonight?"

"That's a great idea! What made you think of it?"

"I think the guys are having one too."

"Oh goody, I'm going to go make brownies!" came the excited reply.

**And there's the new chapter! Hoped you like it! You should tell me in a review! Especially since the review box is so handily down there. See you next week, same bat time, same bat channel!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hey ya'll! So here's the next chapter, as promised. And yes, I know it's late, but I had some doubts about this chapter. You'll see. And yes, I know a sleepover is terribly cliché and overdone, but it also makes for good bonding time. Well I know you want to start reading, so I'm going to shut up now.**

Kate's POV

I looked up from my book as Sparrow ran into my room.

"Kate, we're having a sleepover!" she said excitedly.

"What? Where?"

"Here!"

"Wow, someone's excited," I said with a smile.

"Well, I've never been to one before!" This got a reaction out of me. I sat straight up and looked at her.

"Say what? You've never been to a sleepover before? You poor deprived child! Let's go and get ready!"

"What do I need to do to get ready?"

I shook my head. "You need to put on pajamas and grab a sleeping bag. Although a lot of the time you just end up on the floor," I added as an afterthought.

"What do you do at one?" Sparrow asked curiously.

"Well you talk, and play games, and watch movies, and eat junk food, and stay up late."

"Awesome. I can't wait!"

I laughed. "Well go put your pajamas on, and then we can go help Megan in the kitchen."

Sparrow gave me a strange look. "How did you know Megan was baking?"

I grinned. "It's a sleepover. Earth culture stuff. Of course she would be baking."

"Oh. Well I'll see you in a few minutes!" I smiled, and closed the door behind Sparrow. I quickly changed into my pajamas: a baggy purple shirt and gray sweatpants. Not anything fancy, really, just something I would wear around the house on a Saturday. I heard a knock on the door and opened it. It was Sparrow. She was wearing a lavender shirt with a moon on it, and gray and purple striped pants. She gave me a look.

"What?" I asked.

"Aren't you going to take off your knives?" she said, pointing to my arms, where the knives on my forearms were exposed by the short sleeves.

"Huh? Oh no. I never take them off, unless I'm swimming or in the shower. Always be prepared is my motto!"

"If you say so…"

"Come on, I want to see if Megan can make fudge!" I said.

**ooooooooooooooooooooooo**

The boys and girls had somehow joined sleepovers. We were all in the living room watching Disney movies. Not only had Sparrow never been to a sleepover, but neither had Megan or Conner. And Megan, Conner, and Kaldur had never seen a Disney movie, which resulted in our current situation. Megan and Conner were sitting on the shorter couch. Robin was on the end of the longer couch. Sparrow was next to him, I was next to Sparrow, and Kaldur was next to me. Wally and Artemis were on the floor. I was dozing off when I heard Wally mention something about a sandwich. The next thing I knew Artemis was yelling about Wally being a lazy sexist pig. I opened my eyes and sat up. I blushed, realizing I had been propping my head on Kaldur's shoulder.

I turned towards the ruckus. "What happened?"

Artemis faced me. "Wally told me to go and make a sandwich and when I asked why, he said because my place was in the kitchen!" Now I was fully awake, and as mad as a hornet.

"You said that Wally?" I nudged Sparrow, who was leaning against Robin (note to self: they would make a cute couple). "Sparrow, did you hear that?"

"What?" she muttered sleepily.

"Wally just said women belonged in the kitchen."

"Say what now?" She was up now.

"Wally said that women belong in the kitchen!"

Sparrow turned to the other couch, where Megan was curled up next to Conner. "Megan, get off your boyfriend, we're about to cream the boys!"

"He's not my boyfriend," Megan said, blushing.

"What about creaming us?" Robin said. Somehow he had managed to keep his sunglasses on while sleeping.

"Boys versus girls. Inside the cave. Whoever captures all of the opposite gender first wins," Sparrow stated.

"Oh you're on," Robin said.

"Yeah, we're gonna win anyway," Wally bragged, earning a smack upside the head from Artemis.

"We'll have twenty minutes to prepare and strategize. After that, anything goes, so long as no one is hurt," Sparrow stated. The girls went into the kitchen, while the boys stayed in the living room.

"I call Wally," Artemis stated right off the bat. "I can't wait to pound him into the dust."

"I'll take Robin," Sparrow said. "At least I've had some Batman training. We'd pretty much be equals."

"I'll go after Kaldur," I volunteered. "I bet I could play off his chivalry."

"That leaves you with Conner," Sparrow said to Megan, who bit her lip in worry. "Don't worry, just use your telekinesis and you won't hurt him." That seemed to reassure Megan a little. "Alright Megan, link us up. Artemis go and grab your bow. I need to go get my utility belt."

"I already have my weapons," I said with a grin.

"Before we go, let's dissect their tactics," Sparrow started. "Robin is sure to set traps, so watch out for those. Conner will most likely try a direct attack. Wally will use his speed, and Kaldur…ummm…"

"He likes to engage honorably, but is not above stealth," I finished. Everyone stared at me. "What? I figured knowing everyone's styles would help during a fight."

Sparrow nodded. "Alright, everyone. Keep in contact through the link. If you need help call. For the girls!"

"For the girls!" we all echoed; then ran off in different directions. I headed towards the back of the cave, plotting my moves. Keep away from the pool because of Kaldur. Away from open spaces so Wally and Conner would have less room to maneuver. Robin would most likely be in the air vents. And let's not forget the traps he had inevitably set up. Thinking of this, I effortlessly leapt over a tripwire. Looking around, I saw that it triggered a net. It was an obvious trap, which meant there was a hidden one nearby. What to do, what to do. I suppose I could always levitate…I bet Robin wouldn't be expecting that…and I couldn't think of any triggers. I focused, and soon I was floating down the hall. At the end I lightly touched down. Phew. Made it. I took a step, and an alarm went off. Weight sensitive pressure plates. Rats. Thankfully no net or cage or anything came out, but everyone in the cave now knew where I was.

"_Is everyone okay? What's that sound?"_ Sparrow asked.

"_I just set off an alarm. I'm not hurt or anything,"_ I replied.

"_I just read Robin's mind. He knows that you set off the alarm, and Kaldur's coming after you,"_ Megan reported.

"_I just took down Wally," _Artemis said.

"_Congrats! Oh, think I see Kaldur, bye guys!"_ I thought. It was true; Kaldur was at the end of the hall, water bearers shaped as swords at the ready. I slowed to a cautious walk, and grabbed a knife in my right hand, which left my left hand free to use my magic.

"I would prefer not to fight you Kate," stated Kaldur.

"Too bad," I said, then shot a bolt of magic at him. He easily dodged, which I intended, as it brought him close enough to me for me to swipe at him with my blade. He jumped back, as my mind raced. He was bigger and stronger than me. I was quicker and more agile, but I would eventually tire. My best bet was to catch him off guard. I didn't have any information on him, and even if I did, I certainly wouldn't use it against him. Which left me with one choice. This was going to be awkward. I stretched my arms above my head, knowing that a bit of my stomach was being revealed. Kaldur's eyes looked at it for a second; then snapped back to my face. His guard was slightly down, but not enough. I strolled up to him and pushed the swords away. I kept moving until I was a hair-breadth's away, and stopped. I slid my left hand up his chest. Yep. Definitely had his attention now. I stood on tiptoe and lifted my head. He instinctively leaned down. Quick as a whip, I slid my knife up to his throat, and stepped back. "Drop the water bearers," I instructed. Kaldur complied. "Hands behind your back." He followed my instructions, and I roped magic around his wrists. There.

"_I got Kaldur."_

"_I just got Robin,"_ was Sparrow's reply.

"_Where do you want me to take him?"_

"_The kitchen."_

"_I finally got Conner,"_ Megan's voice said.

**oooooooooooooo**

"So do you admit that girls are totally more awesome than boys?" Artemis asked.

"Yes," Kaldur and Conner said simultaneously.

"For today," was Robin's answer. Wally mumbled something.

"What was that? I couldn't hear you," Artemis said sweetly.

"Girls are more awesome than boys!" Wally shouted.

"That's better," Artemis smirked.

"Now make us sammiches!" Sparrow giggled, giddy off of our success.

"Sammiches?" Robin smirked. Both he and Sparrow exchanged amused looks.

"Don't mock me boy. I want my sammiches and I want them now!" Sparrow commanded her smile growing by the second. Her tone of voice also changed slightly. She sounded a lot like a pirate or something. She turned back towards us.

"Aye?"

"AYE!" we all cheered.

"And don't put anything weird in them…Wally!"

"Aw, man!"

**So we have settled the fact that girls are more awesome than boys. Sorry guys. And we also got to see Kate channeling a little Cheshire in this. But she won't be showing this side very often. We just know that she's not afraid to flirt if she needs to. And sorry if the flirting was terrible, it's just that I am a follower of the "be yourself" movement, and that applies to guys too. So I don't flirt. Tell me what you think in a review! Seriously guys, I know you're there, I can hear you breathing!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Yeah, new chapter! Sorry it's so late, but it totally blew my mind. But don't worry, my friend and I are working on the next chapter even while you read this. So this is the same timeline as the last chapter, just from Tori's point of view. Since Tori is just so darn awesome. But not as awesome as Kate. :D Anyway, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice, but I do own Kate, and sort of kind of own Tori.**

**Tori's POV**

When I heard that we were having a slumber party I ran straight to Kate's room. She was reading a book, of course, but I guess by the look of excitement scratched across my face she ignored my intrusion. I practically gushed my excitement onto the startled teen. When I had finally finished her eyes lit up and she smiled. We began chatting and that's when I asked her what to do and bring to the party.

"You need to put on pajamas and grab a sleeping bag. Although a lot of the time you just end up on the floor," she said.

"What do you do at one?" I asked my excitement continuing to grow.

"Well you talk, and play games, and watch movies, and eat junk food, and stay up late."

"Awesome. I can't wait!" I shouted. After, Kate told me to go and put my pajamas. She also said something about Megan cooking, but I was too excited to truly pay attention.

"_Oh my gosh! My first slumber party. Woot, woot, woot!"_ I thought as I did a short dance to my temporary room. I opened a few drawers and searched for my pajamas. They were purple and gray stripped pants with a lavender t-shirt. I thought that the best part of the tee was the moon on the front. It reminded me of one of the three moons on Shadowland. I quickly slipped into my clothes and walked back to Kate's room to see what she thought about them. I walked in and saw that she was wearing a baggy purple shirt and gray sweatpants. The shirt was obviously shorter than her regular long sleeved shirts so her knives were clearly exposed.

"Uh, aren't you going to take off your knives?" I asked gesturing towards the safety hazards. She then stated something about how she never takes them off except when she needs too.

I shrugged and said, "If you say so…"

Kate then decided to break the awkward silence by suggesting we go see if Megan was making fudge.

**Later**

After competing with Wally in an eating contest, losing and then going into a crazy sugar rush rage, my sugar rush went away and I slowly made my way over to the sofa to Robin. He was either watching the Snow White movie, or he was sleeping, but it was hard to tell because he was still wearing his shades. I plopped down on the cushion and stared at the screen. I knew that I was getting tired when all the characters started looking like the surprise cake I tried to bake for Batman, Robin, and Alfred. Let me just say it had no definite shape and looked like a rainbow barfed on it. I wasn't allowed in the kitchen after that. I tapped Robin's shoulder to see if he was awake. He gave a short grumble which told me he was sleeping. I rolled my eyes a bit and gently rested my head on his forearm. He shifted slightly and went back to sleep.

I closed my eyes and drifted off until I heard, "Sparrow, did you hear that?"

"What?" I looked up at her still tired.

"Wally just said women belonged in the kitchen." My eyes snapped opened and glared accusingly at the redhead.

"Say what now?!" I yelled perhaps a little too loud because Robin woke up. A small patch of dry drool was on the corner of his mouth.

"Wally just said women belonged in the kitchen." Kate repeated. I looked across the room to Megan and Connor who were perfectly cuddled together. Too bad I had to ruin this moment.

"_Oh well, we can all just blame Wally later,"_ I thought before yelling. "Megan, get off your boyfriend, we're about to cream the boys!" The two of them were startled and blushing. Megan muttered something about how Connor wasn't her boyfriend, but we all know that it'll happen sooner or later.

"So, you think you guys think you can cream us?" Robin said. I gave him a look that said, _"Yes, we will cream you, smoke you, then serve you in a nice bowl with a spoon."_

"Boys versus girls. Inside the cave. Whoever captures all of the opposite gender first wins," I claimed.

"Oh you're on," Robin said.

"Yeah, we're gonna win anyway," Wally said with a look of confidence. This was broken when Artie slapped him across the head.

"We need at least twenty minutes to plan out our moves. Afterward let the games begin, but make sure nobody is hurt." I stated. We walked into the kitchen, while the boys stayed behind in the living room with their Disney princesses. As soon as I was in the kitchen, I searched for the leftover fudge. _"Need some energy,"_ I thought.

"I call Wally," Artemis said. "I can't wait to pound him into the dirt."

"I'll take Robin," I said. "At least I've had some Batman training. We'd pretty much be equals." _"Except that I have powers."_

"I'll go after Kaldur," Kate volunteered. "I bet I could play off his chivalry."

"_You can also use your witchy powers,"_ I thought. Although I wouldn't say it out loud because Kate hates it when I say she's a witch.

We finished discussing all the nuances of our plan. I melted through the shadow on the floor and fell into one of the many corridors. I began walking around trying to find the best place to hide or where Robin's traps were. I saw that he had set up a lot of motion sensors, and I had to teleport around them. I paused for a moment and let the sugar rush from the fudge kick in. Then, out of the corner of my eye I saw Kate running through the side hallway. I decided to follow her with the "safety in numbers" quote in mind, but before I could catch up, an alarm went off. I jumped startled, and tripped over a tripwire. I saw a net coming down and rolled out of the way. The net wasn't normal; it fastened itself to the ground so that the victim wouldn't be able to get out.

"That's something Wally or Conner would fall for," I scoffed. "You're not getting me today, Boy Wonder." I laughed a little, but stopped when I started to fall through my own shadow into the ground. _"This must be the side effects of my sugar rush. I can't control my teleporting."_ The next few minutes were a blur of me screaming and being thrown around through shadows. One particular scene was quite interesting. I was unsteadily perched on top of a kitchen cabinet and saw Wally taking a snack break consisting of pretty much most of the fudge. Artemis was stealthily hiding behind the pantry door. I felt my grip slipping and saw a shadow on the ground beckoning me to fall into it. _"Maybe I can be a diversion."_ I dropped down and through the shadow. Sure enough Wally jumped out of his chair, nearly choking on his fudge, and stared at the ground as I disappeared. _"Happy hunting, Artemis,"_ I thought as I landed in a strange hallway. I seemed that the sugar wore off and I was once again in control over my powers.

I suddenly heard the familiar laugh of a little birdie. "Robin!" I growled and ran after the sound. The laughter continued to echo off the walls until I finally met a dead end. I glared at the wall resentfully; hating it for not leading me to my target.

"Boo."

"Agh!" I screamed as Robin poked me from behind. I swiftly moved around him and began running away like a scared rabbit. I kept turning through the maze of walls and corridors until I was panting from exhaustion. I saw a long dark shadow on the wall and immediately dashed for it. I ran closer and closer until bam! I ran into a wall.

"Ughhh….ow, ow, ow!" I muttered holding my nose. _"Robin must have painted the wall. He had better hope I didn't break my nose or something."_ While I was tending my injuries, Robin came up and handcuffed me to a handy pipe that was sticking out of the wall.

"So what was that about creaming the boys?" Robin said, raising an eyebrow.

"Shut up, just shut up!" I growled.

He chuckled before talking into his glove. "Come in guys, come in. I've captured Sparrow."

"I haven't heard from Wally in a while, you may want to check in with him," came Superboy's voice. "And how did you catch Sparrow? Are you sure she won't run?"

"Well I handcuffed her to a pipe. She can't teleport with the pipe because it's too big. So voila, one captured Sparrow."

Tch. That's what he thought. I had picked up a few tricks reading through my notes on umbrakinesis. Checking to make sure Robin was still bragging, I turned back to my hands. Focusing, I turned my hands to shadow and slipped them through the cuffs. I walked over to Robin.

"Uh, Supey, I've gotta go," he said, turning off the communication. "So, one on one?"

"You're on," I said, returning the cocky smirk. He pulled a batarang out of his utility belt (which apparently he always kept on him) and held it in the ready to aim position. Before he could do anything I focused on my powers. Time to show him another trick.

"What in the-" Robin yelled as shadows began to swirl around him and squid tentacles made of darkness wrapped around his arms and legs and held him up so he couldn't move.

"Ha, ha. Who caught whom now?"

"_I got Kaldur,"_ Kate's voice echoed in my head.

"_I just got Robin,"_ I said. Using my shadow tentacles, I dragged Robin back to the kitchen, where all the other girls were.

"So do you admit that girls are totally more awesome than boys?" Artemis asked.

"Yes," Kaldur and Conner said simultaneously.

"For today," was Robin's answer. I rolled my eyes at that. Wally mumbled something.

"What was that? I couldn't hear you," Artemis said sweetly.

"Girls are more awesome than boys!" Wally shouted.

"That's better," Artemis smirked.

I had a perfect idea. "Now make us sammiches!" I said with a huge grin. I felt a giddy. Hmm…maybe that sugar rush hadn't worn off.

"Sammiches?" Robin smirked as we exchanged glances.

"Don't mock me boy! I want my sammiches and I want them now!" I said as my voice slowly grew more pirate-like. Turning to the girls I shouted, "Aye!"

"AYE!" they replied.

"And don't put anything weird in them…Wally!" I said, giving the evil eye to the ginger mentioned.

"Aw man!"

**oooooooooooooo**

I was walking back to my room to grab an extra blanket, and Kate had volunteered to go with me. Everyone else had already told the stories of their fights, but Kaldur and Kate hadn't said a word about theirs. Well, only one way to find out…."Hey Kate?"

"Yeah?"

"How did you get Kaldur?"

She blushed. "Don't ask."

**Yeah, Tori on a sugar rush is not good. Anyway, please review!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Hey ya'll! Sorry it took forever to update this again, but I squeezed in a last minute visit to my my grandparents before school started, and now I have homework. My friend (who we'll call Shadow) has absolutely no excuse. She's on vacation for another week and a half. Well, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice, only Kate and kind of Tori.**

**Kate's POV**

The whole team and I are walking back to the cave after going to see "The Lorax" at the Happy Harbor Cinema.

"Oh, Once-ler, you are probably the hottest villain ever," Sparrow says with a small chuckle. She is tightly gripping a "The Lorax" poster in one hand and flailing her other hand back and forth in the most annoying and childish way possible. A large grin spreads across from her face and she begins skipping backwards, occasionally looking back so she won't back up into someone or trip.

"You think a guy that would lie to animals and cut down trees is hot," Robin questions, a smile also on his face. Sparrow shrugs.

"Badness has nothing to do with looks," I say.

"I'm surprised you to were able to see the movie properly with your sunglasses on," Kaldur comments.

"Of course we could. 'Cuz we're awesome like that," Sparrow says and turns back around. Suddenly, her phone begins to vibrate and her ringtone comes on. It plays "prelude 1221" by AFI. She pulls the phone out her pocket and answers it with a polite, "Hello."

The smile that was previously on her face drops. "Yeah, I hear you. Are you sure? Uh-huh. Okay, keep an eye on him until I get there. Yes. Goodbye." Sparrow's final words are rough and slightly angry. She takes a deep breath and lets it out as a sigh.

"Sorry guys I got to go run an errand. I'll see you back at the base. Okay?" she apologizes.

"Again?" Wally asks.

"Yeah, sorry it's important," Sparrow says before running off. We all just stand there and watch her as she soon disappears from sight.

"Do we all agree that was quite… suspicious?" Kaldur asks. We all nod in agreement. Sparrow has been leaving a lot lately in the past week. None of us question it, but we were getting curious. This also reminded me of a certain event that happened to Sparrow around the time she started "running errands."

"Kate."

"Huh?" I look up to see the rest of the team looking at me.

"You look like you have something to say," Robin says. I shift awkwardly from all the eyes.

"W-well, I don't really want to raise suspicions about Sparrow. I mean she's our friend and we should respect her privacy and …."

"Kate."

"Fine, calm down. A few days ago Sparrow, Megan and I went shopping…" Robin gives me a look that says, _"Pfft, Sparrow shopping."_

"Okay, Megan and I went shopping and Sparrow held the bags," I correct myself.

"Megan saw a cute top she wanted to try on and said she'd be out in a minute. While Sparrow and I were waiting for her a suspicious looking man started walking towards us. There was a glint which I guess came off of Sparrow's shades, but at the moment I almost thought their necks had glowed. Crazy, right? Anyways, so she and the guy started talking in some kind of foreign language. Sparrow wasn't smiling and it kinda scared me. Then the man said something and Sparrow yelled at him. The man said something along the lines of an apology and then handed Sparrow two small metal cases. Sparrow put them in her pocket and the man walked away. When I asked her about it she simply said it was nothing, and that's about when she started leaving randomly," I end with a sigh. When I look up I see that everyone has puzzled or curious faces.

"Uh, but we shouldn't accuse her of anything," I add waving my arms, "Sparrow's our teammate and if she said it was an errand it was an errand, okay."

There was a pause and then everyone murmurs a "yes." I look at each of them before squinting my eyes.

"You guys are going to pelt her with questions once she gets back to the base, aren't you?"

"Pretty much," Artemis says calmly before she starts walking towards the base. I stand there my mouth gaping as I watch the rest of the team agree and follow Artemis.

"Sparrow's going to be mad," I mutter under my breath before walking after them.

**Later**

"No, it's none of your business," Sparrow growls.

"Aw, come on Tweety-bird," Wally pleads. Everyone else had just about given up on asking Sparrow about what happened except Robin and Wally, and at the moment Wally had just about ran out of tricks. All he has gotten are angry glares and snarls.

"Hey, Rob, we've got to go. Bats said that we need to go to do that thing later," Sparrow says in a bored tone, completely ignoring the now defeated Kid Flash.

"Yeah, okay," Robin says before waving goodbye.

"Dude, it's all up to you," I hear Wally whisper to Robin. Robin flashes a smile and nods before he and Sparrow enter the zeta tube. I swat Wally on the arm.

"We could, you know, _trust_ her," I say, frowning.

"But where's the fun in that?" he replies in a singsong voice.

I roll my eyes. "Whatever, I'm going to the library." I walk down the hall to my favorite room in the entire cave. I absolutely love to read. Browsing the shelves, I notice a few books on Atlantis. I bite my lip, hesitating, before I grab all three of them and sit down. I soon lose myself in the magical underwater world. Glancing up at a clock on the wall, I see that several hours have passed. I'm suddenly aware of how tired I am. Yawning, I pick up the books and head to the door. Right as I leave the library, I bump into someone, scattering my books. Looking up, I see that it's Kaldur.

"My apologies," he says as he bends down and picks up my books. "I thought no one was in here, so I was coming to turn the lights off." He glances down at the cover of one of the books. "You are interested in Atlantis?" I nod, having lost my ability to speak. "If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. Well, you must be tired, so I won't be keeping you any longer." He hands me my books, and I practically sprint back to my room. I flop down on my bed. Ergh! Why did I have to act like a giggly schoolgirl around Kaldur? Sure, he was handsome, and sweet, and polite, and smart, and caring, and….I groan into my pillow. I do NOT like Kaldur! Okay…maybe a little bit. Why does everything have to be so complicated?

**Yeah, so if we weren't clear on pairings already, we are now. Kaldur/Kate and Tori/Robin. And I understand if some of you don't have time, but please, if you follow or favorite this story, review also.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hey! So I was going to put this up yesterday, but my sister and her friends hijacked the computer to watch Vampires Suck and Salad Fingers. Ugh, last time I saw Salad Fingers I fell off a couch and broke my tailbone.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice, only Kate and sort of Tori.**

**Tori's POV**

As Robin and I exit the zeta tube I glare at him.

"Dude, why is everyone asking me where I went? I mean this isn't the first time I've gone to run an errand and now, suddenly everyone wants to know my business," I say as we walk towards the Batmobile. I want to finish this conversation before we get in the car, so I wouldn't have to face Batman on this.

"_Yeah, if Bats started asking about this stuff I don't think I could handle that kind of pressure,"_ I think to myself.

"We're just worried about you. We don't want you to get mixed up in the wrong kind of stuff," Robin says. He isn't looking at me. This tells me that apparently the team is suspicious that I'm in some kind of gang activity and he's questioning my loyalties too. This makes me kind of angry and feeling kind of guilty I wasn't telling them about the stuff I had been doing.

"_Meh, but it's none of their business anyways, so they shouldn't worry."_ I think as I open the backseat door. Robin follows and closes the door behind him.

"Just drop it, okay?" I whisper.

"Just drop what?" Batman questions. He starts up the car and begins driving down the street.

"Nothing, Batman." Robin lies, still not looking at me. I bite my bottom lip and rub the cut that separates one of my eyebrows. I do that occasionally when I'm nervous or concerned.

"Um. So where are we going tonight?" I ask eager to change the subject.

"We are going to a dinner party," he says, making a turn and slowing down as we come towards the entrance of the Batcave.

"Oh, okay," I say. There was a three second pause before it hit me.

"Wait, I have to wear a dress, don't I?" I ask, my eyes wide. I know I didn't pick out a dress, so that meant that one of them chose the dress. I shudder at the thoughts of the possible choices they might have made hit me.

"Yes, you have to wear a dress and no, you can't wear shorts underneath." I frown at the latter of the statement.

"Dang it."

**Later**

"Sheesh, how long are you planning on staying in there?" Robin giggles from outside the bathroom door.

"Shut up!" I yell back, "I'm still trying to figure out how I can conceal my utility belt under all this."

"Just hide it under the…"

"Snap! I think I just broke a clasp… oh wait… okay, I've got it. False alarm. It was a hook not a clasp." I say.

"_Why do girls dress up in this kind of junk?"_

I finally hook the last hook and walk out of the bathroom. Batman and Rob- I mean Bruce and Dick are both dressed in simple but matching tuxedoes. The corner of my mouth twitches. My outfit is overly complicated and to say I hated it was an understatement. My outfit was made of a white corset with four black lines running down the sides, and two black elbow high gloves. Two small white belts kept them from falling off. The dress also was very lacey the straps and the rest of the dress were also lacey. My shoes were black boots with silver buckles. I wore moth earrings and a moth necklace with my zei stone. My head was a whole 'nother story. I had curled my hair with a curling iron and even applied makeup.

"Mistress Torrance, might I say you look-" Alfred begins.

"Yeah, yeah. Just don't look in the bathroom. It took a lot to get all frilly like this," I cut him off.

"What happened to your eyebrow?" Dick asks as we walked to the limo waiting outside.

"I penciled it in." I say, happy he was cheery again in contrast to earlier.

As we arrive at the party we're greeted by flashes of light.

"The paparazzi," I mutter. The inside is amazing. It was like a wedding, but nobody was getting married. A bunch of rich people and their few children gathered together under a beautiful chandelier. Many of these people were on the dance floor dancing gracefully or chatting. This was my cue to start heading towards the nearest corner. I find a table as far away from the dance floor as possible. But, even after all my efforts one stray kid manages to stumble my way. My presence is graced by a tall, and frankly handsome, young man with wavy blonde hair, light brown eyes, a cleft chin and a small mole on his right cheek. He gives me a kind smile.

"Hello," his voice is kind. I look him up and down.

"_Well, he doesn't look too snobby,"_ I think.

"Hi," I say with a smile. I said this in a tone that sounded like, _"What do you want?"_

"So, you don't like parties?" he questions.

"Eh, the parties are alright, you see a lot of interesting people. It's the outfits I don't like."

"Oh, well, you don't look that bad," he says sincerely. I give a small laugh.

"Yeah, thanks."

"My name's Luke. What's yours?"

"I'm Torrance. It's nice to meet you."

"Ditto. Your name suits you."

"Thanks," I say, giving an eye roll. We then begin talking about the people who were arriving and the outfits they were wearing.

I had just about busted into tears from laughter when Dick walks up to the table.

"Hey, there you are. I've been looking for you."

"Well, I've been here the entire time," I say with a semi- sarcastic look. Dick looks from me to Luke and back to me.

"Want to dance?" he asks.

"Uh, well, I can't dan-"

"Don't worry I'll show you," he says with a somewhat forced smile.

"Okaaaaaay," I stand up and he grabs my wrist, dragging me to the dance floor. Dick places both my arms on his shoulders. He then put his arms around my waist and looks at our shoes.

"So just move your feet at an even pace so that we move in a small circle. Just think 1 and 2 and 1 and 2. Got it?"

"Got it," I say moving my feet to match his as we begin to dance.

"So, did you really want to dance, or are you just jealous?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.

"I wanted to dance," he says coolly.

"Liar," I say feeling calm. Dancing is kind of relaxing and different from our normal fast paced lives as Robin and Sparrow. At that moment we just look at each other. Blue eyes meeting gold ones.

"What kind of relationship do you have with that guy?"

"Ha, I knew you were jealous!"

"Why would I be jealous?"

"Because I'm laughing with someone else."

"Whatever." He smiles. I'd take his smile over Luke's any day. I guess there was something about him that makes his smile better. I shake my head slightly. I suddenly notice the music has stopped.

"Dick, the music stopped, and I think people are staring." Sure enough a lot of people are watching the two strange kids dancing around the dance floor with no music. The embarrassment makes my cheeks burn with a blush.

"Dude, seriously," I whisper.

"Let them," he says. I look back into his eyes and see that he's serious. I end up just staring at his blue eyes. I realize how close our faces were and that he is slowly leaning forward. I gently close my eyes and…

"YOU CAN'T HAVE A PARTY WITHOUT THE PENGUIN!" both of our heads whip around to see the stout man shooting bullets everywhere with an umbrella and leading a cluster of small penguin robots into the building.

_ "Dang it! I'm going to kill him!"_ I think as I run to the bathroom to change into my Sparrow outfit. I blush a little at the thought of what almost happened. I smile and touch my lips.

"Next time," I whisper before putting my mask on and dashing out the door.

**Well, I think this chapter was a little too soon coming, but whatever. Blame it on shadow, not me. Review!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Kate's POV**

I'm standing in the briefing room with Sparrow, watching several screens, all showing the team. Wally and Artemis on one, Robin and Kaldur on another, and Megan and Conner on the third. The League of Shadows has built four towers containing an unknown contagion, positioned exactly so as to wipe out the entire population. Why they want to kill everyone, including maybe themselves, I have no idea. Of course they could always have a safe house…

I snap out of my musings to pay attention to the screen. Wally and Artemis are right outside their tower, Megan and Conner have just gotten inside, and Robin and Kaldur have found the control room. Robin is hacking the main system while Kaldur is standing guard. Just then, a few guards wearing full body armor, including helmets, enter the room where Robin and Kaldur are stationed. Kaldur begins to fight them off, but weakened from previous injuries, he is quickly knocked out. The guards head towards Robin, but just then a sharp hiss is heard from all three screens. Our teammates fall to the ground, coughing, although the guards' suits apparently had filters. I tense, and am already halfway to the zeta tubes with Sparrow right behind me.

"Sparrow, Silver, report!" Batman snaps. We reluctantly turn around, seeing Batman on a fourth screen. He coughs, and a chill runs down my spine. "You are the only heroes left. Everyone else has been contaminated. Fortunately, Robin was able to bring the fourth tower off of the timer, so it has yet to release the contagion. It won't stay that way for long though. You two must destroy the tower to save everyone else left," he starts coughing violently.

"Batman? Batman!" Sparrow shouts. His only response is to close the screen, leaving us alone. My hands trembling, I punch in the command to zoom in on the screens. I scan my teammates' bodies looking for any sign of life. I find none. Megan and Conner are wrapped in each other's arms, and Wally and Artemis are reaching for each other, like they finally recognized their feelings. A sob breaks from my lips, but I force it back down. There will be time to cry later.

"Come on," Sparrow says as she briskly walks to the zeta tubes.

"Wait, don't we need a plan?" I ask as I run after her.

"Here's one: we go to the tower, kick some villain butt, then save the day," she replies. Anyone else would think she's fine, acting like her normal cocky self, but I can tell she's just as shaken up as I am. I look at her face. She looks kind of pale and her teeth, which are locked in a grimace, look unnaturally sharp. As if they could chop off a finger with one chomp. She notices me staring and shuts her lips. I nod, playing along. She grimly punches in the coordinates in the zeta tube: 2.6633 degrees south, 23.8864 degrees east. Congo, Africa. Taking her hand, we step into the tube as the blue light washes over us.

I open my eyes to see the bustling city of Kinshasa. It is the most populated city in Congo. Sparrow and I sneak through the shadows, avoiding notice despite our odd costumes. We head to the edge of the city where Sparrow can safely make her shadow beast, Bandersnatch. We ride through the desert, Sparrow tracking the signal of the tower on her wrist computer.

"I'll make them pay. I'll spear them all and make them pay," I hear Sparrow mutter her words getting lost in the winds. I wasn't sure how much of that she meant, but the graveness in her voice says that she might not even hesitate to kill.

"It won't bring them back," I murmur back to her, "Death is not something the team would have wanted." Sparrow turns back to me. She looks at me for a moment. Even though I can't see her eyes I know that she understands.

"For you, Kate. Because you are the only one I have left."

It's dusk by the time we finally arrive. We stop a few miles away, Sparrow dissipating her beast as we crouch behind a sand dune.

"Now what?" she whispers. I grin.

"Leave that to me." Taking a deep breath, I slowly raise my hands as my stone pulses silver. As soon as my hands are directly over my head I drop them, but keep my eyes closed.

"I don't see anything happening," Sparrow hisses at me.

"It's an invisibility spell. Warrior magic. Now take us to the tower before I pass out," I say through gritted teeth. I feel Sparrow's firm grasp on my arm, guiding me into a light jog. The door was a lot farther than I expected, and I am soon panting and covered in sweat from running while maintaining the spell. Luckily, Sparrow isn't one of those people who would leave anyone behind. She tightens her grip on my arm and is now practically dragging me.

"Keep it up, we're almost there!" Sparrow quietly cheers. I gasp for air, relieved. Just then I hear a weird fizzing sound. "Um, are sparks supposed to be coming off?" she asks hopefully.

"No. Run for it!" I shout, throwing caution to the wind. We race to the entrance, thankfully no on spotting us. Reaching the door, I look it up and down searching for some kind of doorknob, only to find a keypad. All of the words being written in French.

"_Of course. The language I speak, but can't hack, and the one Sparrow can hack, but doesn't know," _I think.

Before I can open my mouth, Sparrow gives me a grin.

"My turn," She says, then walks into a shadow, disappearing. A few moments later, the door opens, revealing a smug-looking Sparrow. "Now what?" I whisper.

"Errrr…oh look, I can pull up a map on that computer!" she whisper/shouts. I roll my eyes, but keep lookout while she plugs her wrist computer to the computer in front of us. She begins to hack the computer as fast as she can. She whispers an apology for not being as quick as Robin. Just then I hear a yell, while Sparrow simultaneously shouts "Done!" I grab her wrist and drag her down the hallway, away from the direction of the guards. Sparrow jerks me to a halt, silently pointing to the air duct. Pulling out a knife, I pry the cover off giving her a boost up, then clambering in myself, replacing the cover. We crawl through the vents, Sparrow checking her map every once in a while. We've been crawling for what I guesstimate to be about seventeen minutes when she stops and points to another opening. Peering through the cracks, I see a room with three large guys in front of a door. The men have heavy artillery at their disposal and look as if they were slightly more than human. There's also another vent that's conveniently placed near a wall that would block the view of the men if we crawled through.

"I'll distract the guys and take them out. You get to the room safely. Okay?" Sparrow says telling me the plan. I nod and begin to move forward past her and towards the other vent. As I continue to move I hear a loud creak. I look back at Sparrow who's looking down at the vent. It creaks again and starts to shake.

"Snap." Sparrow then falls as the vent breaks from underneath her. She lands on her feet, but stumbles back slightly giving the men a few seconds to grab hold of her and begin beating her. There's a sharp snap and a hiss. Sparrow has disappeared and is now hiding behind the safety wall far away from the men. They haven't moved from their post, but now they've warned everyone to stay alert, and that there's an intruder. In one of their hands is Sparrow's necklace. Sparrow's mask has also been torn on one side during the scuffle. Her eyes are a strange shade of purple.

She mouths, "What are you doing? Hurry up." I do, and join her by the wall.

"They don't look like they are going to move," Sparrow says before taking a glance back at the men, "And I'm pretty sure they aren't human."

"I know," I agree.

"They've got my stone, so I can't make any weapons. Can I borrow a knife?" She asks, taking off the shreds that used to be her mask.

"What are you going to do?" I ask, thinking about what she had said earlier.

"What I have to," She says, her amethyst eyes flickering, her sharp teeth opening and closing slightly.

"Okay," I say. I halfheartedly hand her the knife that's strapped to my right arm. She holds it in her hand, and grips the handle tightly.

"Alright, now whatever happens don't look, okay?" she whispers as she begins walking towards the edge of the wall.

"Okay," I whisper back. Sparrow rushes out. What follows are many gunshots, cries and screams of pain, the sound of cloth being ripped and of empty bullet shell cases dropping, and the coppery smell of blood. I shut my eyes and pray that Sparrow is alive.

"Kate." I look up at the sound of her voice. Once again her necklace is rightfully around her neck. I smile, but it falls as I look down. There is blood dripping off of Sparrow's hands and a little is on her face.

"Oh my gosh…" I begin, but Sparrow cuts me off.

"Let's go," she says, wiping her hands on the pants of her outfit.

As I follow her she says, "Don't look at the bodies." But it's too late. I catch a glimpse of one man. A black spike is driven through his chest. My breath becomes shaky. Noticing my delay Sparrow pulls me through the door.

"I'm so sorry," Sparrow chokes out. I look at her. The coolness and seriousness that had once been captured in her face has now disappeared. She's truly upset about how she had taken the lives of these three men. She shouldn't have to go through this at such a young age.

"_She's even younger than me. Just a kid,"_ I think, but before I can cater to her she turns back to a large supercomputer.

"The mission. I can be upset later." Sparrow begins decoding. I wander over to a gigantic container. This is what killed them, my friends, and my family. My life. Tears well in my eyes, but I swipe them away with the back of my hand. I'm going to finish this mission, make them proud.

"Kate," I turn around to Sparrow. She's still decoding, but looks like she has to say something.

"If I don't make it out of here-"

"Don't say that. You'll be fine," I snap, not wanting to think the worst.

"I know. But seriously, if I die, I want someone to know." I stop getting distressed and listen to her.

"For the past few weeks I know I have been skipping out on you guys, and I have probably been raising some suspicion. Well, I'm not a part of some sort of gang or anything. I've been looking for my brother, and I found him…in Belle Reve." I stiffen slightly at the name of the prison.

"Well, I went there because I had to deliver both a message to him and a case of ashes." Sparrow's eyebrows were scrunched up and tears began to slide down her face.

"My dad… didn't make it. He's dead, and we had him cremated. A portion of his ashes were given to us. I couldn't give them directly to my brother, but I was able to give them to Dr. Strange, who will get them to my brother." Sparrow took a deep breath.

"So you're the only one I have left, Kate. That's why I need to protect you."

I see the hard look in Sparrow's eye. But her face is pale white, revealing how shaken she is. I want nothing more to pull her into a hug, tell her it's going to be okay, but she turns back to the computer like nothing happened. This time I pay careful attention to the door, trying to take in everything.

"Done," Sparrow says quietly. No sooner than she steps back a robotic voice announces, "Releasing gas in one minute and counting." Her face registers shock, which I know is mirrored in my own, for a split second before she rushes back to the computer, furiously typing in codes. Panting with exertion she punches in a few final commands before running over to me. Yanking a piece of black chalk out of her utility belt, she starts tracing a circle around me.

"What's going on?" I ask, attempting to step over the line.

"No! Stay inside the circle!" Sparrow shouts, practically shoving me back in. Raising her arms, she draws up a thick wall of shadow that follows the chalk marks on the floor and meets above me, enclosing me in a dark cylinder.

"What are you doing?" I shout.

"I blocked off all openings to the inside," she replies, her voice muffled by the barrier between us. "The gas will stay outside. I only have enough energy for a wall this size." The full impact of what she's doing hits me. I start banging on the shadows, which are as hard as rocks.

"No!" I screech. "I won't let you do this!" Sparrow says nothing, just steps back with a sad smile.

"Five…four…three…two…one…," the voice announces. I hear the same hiss from before, and my vision is clouded by the fog of infection, or maybe by the tears forming in my eyes. Sparrow holds her breath for as long as possible, but eventually involuntarily gasps for air. Her eyes never stray from mine as she begins to violently cough. As her spasms continue, I notice her body elongating, her skin turning gray. As if seeing what I'm seeing, she raises her hand, darkening the wall until all I can see is a shadowy figure on the floor, rocking back and forth, until it stops moving. "Automatic air clearing beginning," the voice says. I hear a sound like the world's largest vacuum, and as soon as it stops, Sparrow's shield shatters and disappears.

I collapse to the floor, finally letting the tears I've been holding back flow. I see flashes of all the people I've lost. Mom with her head tilted back, laughing; Gary leaning over schoolwork; Dad giving me my first knife. Megan taking cookies out of the oven; Conner watching static; Wally delivering a corny pick-up line; Artemis practicing archery; Robin's face reflecting the blue glow of a computer screen; Kaldur perfecting a move in training. Sparrow appears the most. Fighting, laughing. The night of the sleepover. They're all gone, forever. I'm alone.

I'm snapped out of my reverie by a persistent beeping from the computer. Grateful for the small distraction, I stumble over to it. On the screen is a picture of a building identical to this one, with "Emergency Contagion" and numbers counting downward at the bottom of the screen. I panic as I realize there's a fifth tower, one no one knew about. Gasping for air, I force myself to calm down. Glancing at the numbers, I see a 30 become a 29 become a 28…I snap into overdrive. I wish I knew more about computers! Crawling around behind the monitor, I pry off the back panel to reveal a tangle of colored wires. I bite my lip, trying to remember anything Robin and Sparrow mentioned about hacking. Cut the green and splice it to the blue? Or cut the blue and splice the red and black together? I groan. Using my eyes, I trace the only purple wire back to its source. Squinting, I can just make out small print reading "self-destruct control." Well that was easy. With shaky hands, I reach out and cut the wire.

"Self-destruct in ten…nine…eight…" the voice starts counting down. I stay curled in a ball until the fiery light takes me.

**oooooooooooooooo**

My eyes fly open as my memories of the simulation rush back. Involuntarily, I let out a scream before cutting myself off. Sitting up, I gasp for air, hyperventilating. I press my fingers to my temples trying to calm myself down. Someone puts their hand on my shoulder, and I scream again, tumbling to the floor. Looking up, I see that it's Batman.

"It's okay, it was only a simulation," he says. I burst into tears. I hear the team run into the room, and I hear their collective gasps. Looking up at the other table, I see Sparrow. But she's different. It's the thing she was turning into in the simulation. Her hair is straighter and a ghostly white. As it falls in her face she tucks it behind her small, pointed, semi- goat like ears. She has pale gray skin with darker gray freckles. Her eyes are still purple though. Poking from her thick white hair are two small black horns. Through her barely parted lips I see her pointed teeth. She's sitting up, her legs and long, prehensile tail dangling over the side.

Without a second thought I fling myself into her arms, sobbing. Slowly, I feel her form shift back into that of the thirteen-year-old girl's that I know. She places her sunglasses back on and puts her face on my shoulder. I don't realize she's crying until I feel the cloth on my shoulder soaked in tears. We stay there, holding each other for a long time. Megan and Artemis come over and hug us, and I can vaguely hear Robin shouting at Batman. Soon after, the boys come and stand by us. I flush, suddenly aware of how much I'm acting like a drama queen. I break out of everyone's embrace and quickly walk out of the room, head down. A flashback of what had occurred before the simulation rushed into my mind.

_I stand in the center of an obscure room, nervously waiting in front of Batman. Shifting my weight, I scowl. Of all the days Sparrow's late, she chooses the day I'm alone in a room with Batman. The awkward silence is broken when Sparrow runs into the room at full speed, panting._

_ "Sorry, I overslept, and then the zeta tube went all whack, and it sent me to Star City, which I have no idea why, since I specifically typed in Mount Justice, and then-," she rambles, only to be silenced by a look from Batman. She joins me as we both look at Batman._

_ "Today you will be participating in a failure simulation. No matter what you do, you will not be able to succeed. Also, you will not know it is a simulation. Martian Manhunter will link our minds together, so you will be able to interact with each other, and I will be able to control the circumstances," he states._

_ "Where is Martian Manhunter?" Sparrow asks. Just then he phases up from the floor, making Sparrow yelp. I giggle. Who knew J'onn had a sense of humor?_

_ "Are you ready?" he asks solemnly, stilling my laughter. I eye the two metal slabs positioned off to the side and across from each other. I wish they didn't look quite so similar to the slabs in a morgue. Tori and I hop onto the slabs and lie back. For an instant I wonder where the team is, and why they haven't shown up to wish us luck. Then my mind goes black._


	13. Chapter 13

**Hey, sunflower here. Reason I'm posting this a day early is because I have a horse show Saturday (!) and I'll be getting the horse ready tomorrow after school, polishing my boots, cleaning my helmet, packing, and entertaining my grandparents. And I'll be gone all Saturday. So yeah. Happy early chapter day!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice or its characters.**

**Tori POV**

"So… this is a therapy session?" I ask Black Canary, sitting in a green chair. Apparently, Kate and I have to go through these therapy sessions after the simulation. It's so that we can talk about what happened and how it made us feel. I heard that when the rest of the team did their training exercise, it went haywire, and they were somewhat hesitant to let Kate and I do it. The day after the simulation Kate and I agreed that I should go first. The poor thing still seems shaken up by the whole thing.

"Yes, and I want you to know that this is a safe environment, and nothing that you say will leave this room," Black Canary says, reassuring me that I could say anything and wouldn't be judged.

"Well, it's a little too late for that since now everyone knows about my dad dying and my brother being in jail. So, I guess you can just ask what you want and I'll answer it," I say with a small yawn. The simulation took a lot out of me, and I can't seem to find enough time to rest up now a days. Black Canary leans forward and folds her hands over her lap.

"Let's start with that. How was your life before you came to Earth?" I look at Black Canary wearily. Her form is getting blurry and my eyes begin to hurt. Wearing sunglasses inside isn't helping either. I close my eyes and think back to when I was younger.

"It was very… peaceful. My dad, my two brothers, and I all lived in our den together. I was the youngest of three," I smile a little, remembering how I would lose my teeth and string them up like a necklace.

"_Actually, that was more gross than it was funny,"_ I think, dropping the smile.

"So you had no motherly figure in your life?" Black Canary asks.

"No, I never knew my mom," I say, calmly opening my eyes again, "And one day during The Harvest my older brother disappeared while hunting down a tn'afele." Black Canary gives me a confused look.

"Uh, it's a lot like a human elephant except bigger and more brutish," I try to explain the best I can.

"A few lunar turns, uh, years later my dad said that we should go to Earth right after he gets human forms for us from the Royal Unit, which is our government monarchy thing. It was supposed to be an exciting experience for all three of us, and it was. Earth is so beautiful, colorful, and bright. But, my brother thought he was a man and decided to leave before us. He didn't understand human law, and when he looked for a job he accidently ended up trafficking drugs across the border," I say, rolling my eyes behind my shades.

"Idiot," I mutter before sighing. "But, he's my bro and I still love him."

"You don't seem like you're very upset." I shrug at her comment.

"Well, this did happen a long time ago. I guess I was kind of upset in the beginning, but later on I realized that he made a bad choice and he would have to suffer for it."

"Okay, so, tell me about your experience in the simulation." I know what she's going for and I give her my extreme poker face. The face I use when strangers and weirdoes ask me a question when I'm both tired and irritated and really don't feel like talking.

"IdidwhatIhadtoforthemissiona ndtosaveKate,"I say quickly in a single breath.

"_Liar!" _My conscience yells at me.

"Sparrow," Black Canary says with a stern voice. Even though her voice is firm her eyes are soft. She looks at me as if to say, "_It's okay. You can tell me anything."_ Somehow, she seems to know that I don't want to admit why I had done what I had done during the mission.

"I didn't want to disappoint him," I quickly slap a hand over my mouth.

"_Why'd you say that? Stupid. STUPID! STUPID!"_

"Batman?" Black Canary asks. I slump in the chair, feeling quite defeated.

"Yes. I didn't want to disappoint him. Completing missions are so important to him. I guess… I guess I just wanted to make him proud of me," I crack a tired smile and give another short yawn.

"I understand," Black Canary says, nodding. She looks back at me, "Sparrow, you seem tired. Are you alright?"

I close my eyes again and nod.

"Yeah, it's just… we Shadowlanders aren't very… uh… "mentally strong" I guess. Usually, telepathy is used back on our planet as a punishment. Regular telepathy makes us tired, but if it was used as an attack it becomes very painful. Fortunately, during missions I have so much adrenaline and energy I usually don't feel the weariness. On the other hand, since I died at the end of the simulation I became very tired and this whole alias by day Sparrow by night stuff isn't really working out to well with my fatigue." Feeling like I had said enough Black Canary ends the session. I walk out of the room and head straight for the living room and to the comfy sofa. I face the back cushions and turn my back towards the TV. I teleport my iPod from my substitute room and put the earbuds in. Scrolling through my playlists, I finally land on one that says, _"_Rest._" _I close my eyes and drift off to sleep, listening to the tunes of Owl City. When I wake up I'm inside the Batmobile.

"_Strange, _"I think to myself as I step out of the vehicle. I begin thinking of how comfortable I will be snuggled up in my bed, but of course who else would be in my way other than Batman.

"Yes, um, sir?" I ask, wondering if I've forgotten to do something.

"You need to practice hand-to-hand combat. No gadgets. No magic." He says, taking of his utility belt and laying it on the ground.

"Right now?" I whine, "I'm like so freaking tired it's not even funn- WHOA!" I yelp as I dodge a punch to the face. A feeling of anger and slight irritation fills me. I try to punch him but it is swiftly blocked. I take a step back while still dodging Batman's advances.

"Is this supposed to be like a father/daughter family bonding thing because right now I'm not feeling the bonding," I comment still getting pushed back, "Also, this is seriously unfair. Attacking a person while they're at their weakest."

"Crime doesn't wait for you to be at your strongest. It looks for the perfect time to show its ugly face," he grunts. One of the sharp points on his glove cuts the material on my forearm.

"_If this is bonding, I don't see why we can't just go play basketball instead of me having to get my butt handed to me in a fight."_ Once again he aims for my face and I quickly shield it with my arms. The impact of his fist causes me to stumble a little and take a moment to readjust myself. Unluckily, a moment was all it took for Bruce to hit me in the gut with a solid punch. I won't lie; I did throw up just a little on his costume. The bile burns the back of my throat as I bend over.

"Augh," I groan.

"You let your opponent back you into a corner and your fear and anger judge your fighting," he says as I rub my stomach a little. I scowl at him a little before turning my attention back to my abdomen.

"_I'm pretty sure nothing's broken, but my stomach is going to be sore for the next few days,"_ I think to myself, not listening to the rest of what Bruce is saying. He takes his cowl off and smiles.

"But, you put up a good fight without your powers. Good job," he says. I look up at him, somewhat confused. He's beginning to get cloudy. I'm starting to black out.

"I failed. That doesn't deserve congratulations," I murmur, shakily standing up and thinking about what I said at therapy earlier. I feel as if my muscles strain and then give out. Right before I hit the ground, Bruce catches my arm. He picks me up as if I'm still a child, and before I completely pass out he says, "No matter how many times you fail, or think you've failed, I'll still be proud of you."

**ooooooooo**

In my dream I'm floating around in a room of darkness. I feel fur brush between my fingertips and immediately look down. There, running around beneath me is Bandersnatch, barking. I swim/glide down towards him. I gently pat him on the head and look around. Surrounding us are floating mirrors that seem to appear out of nowhere. I stare at three that seem to be linked together. One holds an image of me as a child. The second, my true form. I touch, my horns cursing them for being so embarrassingly small. In the third mirror is a small bird, a sparrow I suppose. Bandersnatch barks at it. In return the bird gives a loud scream-like squawk.

I gasp as the earth beneath me begins to shake and crumble. I end up landing on my butt on the ground. I slowly stand up and examine the new scenery. It's a simple, empty white room. I turn to the right and watch as a hole opens up in the far wall. A second hole appears on the opposite wall. I watch as film begins spewing out of one wall and into the next. As the film comes close to me I can catch quick glimpses at recent memories. Once the last piece of film has been swallowed both holes simultaneously close up. The room is beginning to hum and glow. An invisible force lightly presses against my head and just as quickly disappears. Following it is a voice.

"No matter how many times you fail, or think you've failed, I'll still be proud of you." The words echoes around the room getting louder and louder until finally my eyes snap open.

I sit up, realizing I was in my room back in Gotham. I look at the clock that sits on my nightstand. It reads 3:14 am. I flop back down onto the bed and close my eyes, thinking about the message that had entered my dream.

"_Thank you, Bruce." _I think before once again drifting off.

**Hi guys, Shadow (I guess) here. I just wanted to apologize if good old Bats seemed OOC. I wanted him to have a fatherly moment with Tori. I didn't really like this chapter because Tori was supposed to both be tired and somewhat upset. **

**Sunflower: Personally, I enjoyed this chapter. Tell us your opinion in a review!**


	14. Chapter 14

**Hey! For anyone who's curious, I placed first at my horse show. But more importantly, Young Justice comes back tomorrow! So excited! Read on, this has to be my favorite chapter to date.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice or any of its characters, just Kate and kind of Tori.**

**Kate's POV**

I shift my weight uncomfortably, trying not to meet Black Canary's gaze. It's been a little under a week since the simulation, and we've been having these therapy sessions every day. She waits patiently until I finally look up.

"Are you sure you don't have any problems from the simulation?" she asks.

"Yes," I reply, looking away again. Sighing, I rub my eyes.

"There are circles under your eyes," Black Canary comments gently. "Have you been sleeping well?"

"Yes I'm fine. Just a lot of tests to study for lately. Can I please go now?" I beg. She hesitates, and then nods. I quickly walk out of the room, feeling her eyes on my back. As soon as I'm away from her I sigh in relief. The truth is that I've been having bad nightmares, and I've hardly had any sleep. I've actually been sleeping with Megan the past few nights. I still have nightmares, but at least I don't wake up anymore. I walk past the kitchen and glance at the clock over the stove. It says it's five-thirty. Strange, normally Megan would have started dinner by now. Oh wait. Now I remember. She's going to a sleepover held by her friend Karen from the Bumblebees.

I start getting out pots and ingredients, deciding on introducing the team to some Southern cuisine. While I'm cooking, Superboy wanders by.

"Hey Conner!" I call out. His reply is a grunt. "Do you know how many people are going to be here for dinner?"

"You, me, and Kaldur," he rattles off before sitting down and turning on the static. I nod my thanks before turning back to the food. About an hour later everything's ready.

"Come and get it!" I shout. Conner gets up and walks into the kitchen as Kaldur comes out of the hallway. I hand the two of them bowls, then get one of my own. "Get rice, and then pour the roux over it," I instruct. They both give me blank looks. "The liquid with meat chunks," I amend, demonstrating how. The boys follow my lead, and we all sit down at the table. I watch their faces expectantly as they take their first bites. Both of them open their eyes wide in shock.

"It is very…hot, Kate," Kaldur comments. I grin, and stand up. I grab an oven mitt and pull a tray of biscuits.

"Here, bread cuts the heat," I say, proffering the tray. They quickly grab a biscuit each. I sit back down, taking a bite of my own food. "Oh wait!" I jump back up and rummage through the cabinets. At the very back of the last cabinet I find what I'm looking for. Sitting back down, I shake the red liquid all over my gumbo.

"What's that?" Conner asks, curious.

"Hot sauce," I reply as I eat a spoonful. "Mm, perfect!" They both eye me like I'm crazy. I laugh. After that we make small talk about missions and training. When we're done (Conner and Kaldur ate all the biscuits) we clean up. I wash, Kaldur dries, and Conner puts everything away. I head to my room and read for a while, then shower and change into my pajamas. Getting in bed, I glance at the clock. Nine o'clock. I sigh and try to go to sleep.

After an hour of tossing and turning, I give up and turn on the light. I know there's only one way I'm ever going to fall asleep, and that's if I'm in a room with someone else. Let's see. Kaldur or Conner. Well that's an easy choice. I grab a blanket from the foot of my bed and walk down the hall. I stop at a door and knock. A few moments later Kaldur appears at the door, wearing a white t-shirt and blue pajama pants. I look down, blushing.

"Um, can I stay in your room tonight?" I stammer. "On the floor of course. I just, I um, I can't fall asleep." I look up through my eyelashes in time to see Kaldur nod. I go into his room. Looking around, I see that it's very simple and organized, and it smells faintly like the ocean. I set my blanket up on the floor, creating a makeshift sleeping bag.

"Kate, are you sure you wouldn't like to take the bed?" Kaldur questions.

"Yes, I'm fine," I say. "Good night."

"Good night," he replies. I close my eyes and almost instantly fall asleep.

_I'm running through a flaming house, beams crashing down around me. I scream and jump back as one lands right in front of me. Just then I hear someone else scream. I run towards the sound, my feet moving on their own. I stop in horror as I see my family burning alive, their screams echoing as they thrash around. I try to move towards them, but something holds me in place. Suddenly, everything disappears, and I'm in the control room, watching as my friends die on screen. As quickly as the last change, I'm in Sparrow's shadow cylinder, watching as her form changes from that of a human to one of an alien as she slowly dies. Then I'm falling, falling through blackness as my friends scream._

I sit up, choking on a silent scream. I sob, shaken by my dream. I hear Kaldur sitting up and try to silence myself.

"Kate are you alright?" he asks.

"Yes," I squeeze out. He gets out of bed and sits down next to me. I avoid his gaze. Slowly, Kaldur wraps his arms around me. I curl up and start to cry like a baby. Kaldur just sits there, holding me. Eventually, I run out of tears. I pull back, embarrassed. "Sorry. I um, I had a nightmare."

"I thought you told Black Canary you were fine," he says evenly.

"I lied," I sigh. "I just…I don't want anyone to worry about me. I don't want to make a big deal out of things," I confess. "And normally I'm fine, I don't wake up, but I've been sleeping with Megan and I don't know, somehow my brain knew that and so my nightmare was worse than before and…" I ramble, but stop when I notice the look in Kaldur's eyes. "…What? What is it?" As an answer, he slings me over his shoulder in a fireman's carry, and dumps me in his bed. "What are you doing?" I ask, turning red. He gets into bed beside me.

"Solving your nightmare problem," he replies.

"What? No, I'm fine on the floor!" Kaldur gives me a look. "Fine," I grumble, turning on my side away from Kaldur. "Good night," I mumble.

"Good night."

**oooooooooo**

I take a deep breath, inhaling the scent of saltwater. Saltwater…the ocean? If Tori dragged me onto the beach while I was sleeping I'm going to kill her. I open my eyes. I'm definitely NOT on the beach. I'm in Kaldur's room, tucked up against his side, his arm wrapped loosely around my waist. I thought I was way on the other side of the bed when I went to sleep. Wait. I didn't have any nightmares!

"Yes!" I shriek. Kaldur's eyes popped open.

"What's wrong?" he demands.

"Nothing. I just didn't have any nightmares!" I smile triumphantly.

"That's great Kate," Kaldur smiles back. Just then he becomes aware of our current position. "My apologies," he says, quickly removing his arm.

"Oh, um, no problem," I reply, blushing and rolling out of bed. He also gets up. "Look…please don't tell anyone about my nightmares. Please?" I beg.

He hesitates. "Alright Kate," he sighs.

"Thanks!" I beam, picking my blanket up from the floor. I walk over to him, turning serious. "I really mean that. Thank you, for everything." Before I can lose my courage, I quickly kiss him on the cheek then run out of the room.

**Review!**


	15. Chapter 15

**Hey! Once again, here's the weekly update! Can't promise a regular update after this because this I used up my stockpile. Well, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice.**

**Tori's POV**

I stare up at the ceiling, sitting on the couch, and listening to "Paralyzer" by Five Fingers. This is the fourth time the song has played and it's starting to sound like gibberish.

"Ugh. I'm bored!" I yell, pulling off my headphones, before quickly being shushed by Kate who's sitting on the couch across from me.

"The team will be back any minute now. Now hush, I'm reading." I stick my tongue out at her.

"I saw that," she says, startling me slightly. I roll my eyes and pull my knees to my chest, resting my head on them.

"Hey Kate, if you were tied up in some sort of dark room, by yourself, how would you escape and arrest the criminal?" I ask while scanning the spine of the book for the title. I can't see all of it clearly, but I manage to catch the name "Atlantis." I smirk as I begin devising a clever plan.

The blonde gently closes the book and turns her attention to me. "I'd use my magic to cut the ropes and find the guy."

"Huh. I'd do the same I guess," I say, "But what if you didn't have your powers. I mean, I'd just change back to my alien form, cut the binds with my tail, and hunt down the guy, overpowering him or her with my awesome yet intimidating form," I beam, changing into my true form and showing off my tail, teeth, and claws. I have to be careful though, making sure not to accidently shred the couch. Bats got so mad last time I did that. Kate's eyes widen.

"D-does this form scare you?" I ask, not wanting the room to feel awkward.

"No, of course not. It's just that you look so different," Kate holds her hands up and looks apologetic.

I raise an eyebrow and my smile returns. "Well, I am an alien. What'd you expect?"

"Well, Connor looks human."

"But Megan doesn't," I counter. I decide to change back into my human form.

"So… what's it like? Your alien form I mean," Kate asks. I sigh, and stretch a bit.

"Everything is louder and a lot brighter. Um, I can't eat plants because Shads are designed for only eating meat. Note the sharp teeth. My temperature is higher than a human's, so it's kind of like always having a fever. Because of that the climate is always warmer than it actually is. Also I can't help but feel like my freckles are kind of stupid."

We both laugh for a while before I go and get my laptop from my temporary room. I type in a few codes and watch the camera feed from this week.

"_Boring. Lame. Wait…what's this?"_ I zoom in on a hallway at around 10:32 pm. I look up at Kate, making sure she's back to reading her book before putting my headphones into the laptop. Kate is standing outside of Kaldur's room talking to him before entering said room.

"_What the-"_ my eyes widen, not believing what I see on the screen.

"_Calm down, Tori. There must be a reasonable explanation behind all this."_ I jump a little when I hear, "Recognize Kid Flash. B03 Recognize Robin. B01. Recognize Miss Martian B05. Recognize…" I stand up.

"Hey guys!" I greet them, quickly shutting down my computer and dashing up to them, "So how was it?"

"Great, although the whole time I was thinking about you, babe," Wall says leaning in towards me. I push his face away.

"Cool it on the flirting, Wallman." There's a giggle coming from behind Superboy, Megan, and Aqualad.

"Who's that?" I ask, trying to see around the trio. Noticing this they all disperse, and behind them stands a tall red head and a fourteen year old raven haired girl. Robin is standing kind of close to her, which may or may not have made me a little irritated.

"_Huh. So this is what jealousy feels like,_" I shrug, "_Wait a second. Is that…"_

"Roy!" I blurt out. He turns his attention to me and we both glare at each other for a moment.

"Jerk! What are you doing here?" I yell.

"What am I doing here? I was one of the original four who started this whole thing," he retorts.

"Yeah, sure you were. And as I recall you were also the first to run off throwing a temper tantrum like a toddler."

"You want to say that again?" Roy raises a fist.

"Sure, since apparently you were to slow to catch that. Whining about not being able to see the watch tower, changing your name to something that was totally unoriginal, and running out yelling how "I'm on my own" and "I don't need anyone" makes you come off as a bratty toddler." I feel satisfied as I smirk back at the older boy.

"Fighting amongst the team is unreasonable and you need to stop now," Kaldur commands, being the peacekeeper between us. We both give a 'humph' before walking off in opposite directions. I storm into the kitchen and look in the fridge for a soda, my ranting making me quite parched. A sudden jab to my back sends my jolting upwards and whirling around. Robin and the girl are laughing together. I too give a light laugh before teleporting behind them and jabbing them in the back, causing them to laugh even harder. Once we're done laughing we all sat down at the dining room table.

"I'm Zatanna. You're Sparrow, right?" Zatanna says, holding her hand out. I give her hand a firm shake.

"Yeah, not sure what Robin told you about me, but it's most likely not true," I say, lightly punching the Boy Wonder in the shoulder.

"He didn't say anything bad about you… although he did say that you sleep with a nightlight." Zatanna gives me an odd face.

"WHAT! NO! That's a lie," I growl swatting Robin over the head. Out of the corner of my eye I see Kate talking to Kaldur. She's holding the same book she was reading earlier.

"_That reminds me," _I think, remembering my plans from earlier.

"I've got to go. Talk to you a little bit later," I wave goodbye and run towards Kaldur. Before he can react I grab his arm and teleport to a more private area.

"What in the name of the fifth lunar cycle is going on here," I snap. I teleport my laptop to my hand and show the footage to him. He begins to blush.

"I assure you, it is not as it seems."

"Well, then Kaldur, it seems that in order to prove both you and Kate's innocence you must do something for me," I chuckle evilly.

"Is this some form of blackmail?"

"Yes. Yes it is," I confirm, "Okay, so in order for this little video to be erased from existence…I want you to take Kate out on a date." Kaldur blinks at me, confused.

"What?"

"You heard me. It's obvious by how you two have been making goo goo eyes at each other, you two like each other. C'mon Kal, don't you want Kate to be your gillfriend?" I beam at my pun. I had been waiting for a while for the right moment to use it. Kaldur's blush darkens and he looks away from me.

"Okay?" I hold my hand out waiting for confirmation. He shakes it.

"Agreed." Once again I walk away contentment written all over my face.

**Next chapter is one of my favorites! Review to have it posted!**


	16. Chapter 16

**Hiiiiii guys….so don't hate me, but this was a really hard chapter to write. For some reason I can do fluff, but not dates. So I had Shadow try and write it. Then I had another friend give me advice. And this happened. Consider it a Christmas gift, since I should be asleep right now.**

**Disclaimer: I didn't get Young Justice for Christmas, so Cartoon Network and whoever else still owns it.**

**Kate's POV**

I pace back and forth in front of the zeta tubes waiting for Sparrow to return. At the moment she, Robin, and Wally had left to go see whether Wally's speed was faster than her teleportation or the other way around. I didn't care about that right now though. The events from earlier have left my thoughts kind of scrambled and I'm still trying to process everything.

/flashback/

_Sparrow runs up to me giggling a lot. She seemes a bit nervous or on edge. "Uh, okay Kate whatever happens next, don't spaz. Just say yes, okay?" She then teleports away._

"_Wait," I call after her, "What did you do? Sparrow? Sparrow!" I sigh and turn back around only to be caught off guard by Kaldur standing in front of me. I jumped a little._

"_Geez, Kaldur, you scared me." I look up at him but he doesn't look at me, strangely avoiding eye contact._

"_Um, are you okay, Kaldur?" There's a long silent pause before he finally answers._

"_W-would you like to go get some ice cream with me tonight?" he is even jitterier than Sparrow. There's a blush across his face. My eye widen slightly as I realize what he was asking._

"_L-like a date?" I ask, hoping for a positive answer._

"_Yes." Right then and there my heart stopped. It was as if that one word had stopped time and made everything around us disappear. Then, Sparrow's advice came back to mind. I took a deep breath._

"_Yes. I would love to go," a faint blush emerging from my face as well._

"_Okay, I will come get you at eight. Is that alright?"_

"_Perfect." I give him an award winning smile. He finally looks and smiles back before turning and heading to his room._

_/End Flashback/_

"_Sparrow had something to do with this. I wonder what she did to get Kaldur to ask me out."_ I ponder this as I walk back and forth.

"Recognize Sparrow B09. Recognize Kid Flash B03. Recognize Robin B01." The sound of the zeta tubes snap me away from my train of thought.

"Dude, I told you I was faster," Sparrow scoffs.

"I just tripped a little at the beginning," Wally retorts.

"Sure thing. Whatever floats your boat Flash Boy… Oh, hey Kate," she waves at me.

"Don't 'Oh, hey Kate' me!" I snap.

"…And that's our cue to leave," Robin says, taking Kid Flash by the arm and exiting the room. Sparrow leans against the wall.

"Soooo, what's this about?" she asks.

"Today Kaldur asked me out…" I begin.

"Congrats, girl," Sparrow says, clapping.

"Don't think I don't know what's going on."

"What?"

"Did you bribe Kaldur to ask me out?

"Kate, Kate, Kate. Can't the boy just ask you out because he likes you?" Sparrow raises her eyebrows.

"I-I guess but if her really liked me why couldn't you just let nature take its course?" my voice sounds a bit more whiny than I'd wanted it to.

"Psh. Nature was sleeping and while in this state I just simply edited things a little to speed it up just a little."

"AHA!" I yell, "So you did interfere."

Sparrow jumps a little, then looks down at her non-existent watch. "Oh, look at the time it's almost eight." She disappears and reappears with Megan and Artemis in hand. "Makeover time."

"Why am I here?" Artemis complains.

"Because I can't be the only tomboy in the room," Sparrow whispers. I roll my eyes and lead the way to my room.

"We're not done here," I tell Sparrow. She just laughs. The four of us walk into my room, the door sliding shut behind us. Megan immediately heads for my closet, opening the doors to reveal…nothing.

"Wow, you have even less clothes than me," Sparrow comments, peering in.

"Oh, it's a spell. Just describe what you want, and it appears. Neat, huh? I got it in the Fairy Realm." Artemis hops off of my bed and walks over.

"I want a brown leather jacket with lots of zippers," she says to the closet.

"Say please. And her name is Melanie," I tell her. Everyone eyes me. "What don't you guys name your stuff?" Artemis just shakes her head.

"Please…Melanie," she mutters. A jacket just like she describes appears on a hanger. Artemis squeals and puts it on immediately. "I have got to come to your room more often!" she exclaims. I giggle.

"Feel free to help yourself," I tell her. "So what do you guys think I should wear?"

"A skirt!" Megan squeals.

"Fine," I grumble. After an hour, we finally decided on an outfit. I'm wearing a sky blue shirt (I insisted on the long sleeves), a lacy white skirt that comes down to my knees, and sandals.

"There, you're all ready!" Megan says with a smile. I look at myself in the mirror.

"Oh!" I exclaim. Rummaging through drawers, I grab my hairbrush. Undoing my braid, I brush out my hair. It falls to the small of my back, and is slightly wavy from being in a braid 24/7. The girls stare at it.

"Dang girl, that's almost as long as mine," Artemis murmurs. The spell is broken when Sparrow lets out a yelp.

"Eep! It's almost eight!" she exclaims while rushing me towards the door. "Now I want you back by eleven, and don't do anything I wouldn't do!"

"Sparrow!" I squeal, turning bright red.

"Go on! Get!" she says with shooing motions. I scramble out of the room, and go sit on the couch in the living room, bouncing my leg up and down from nerves. I can hear the girls giggling softly in the hall.

"_Oh gosh. I'm going to make a fool of myself. Ugh. I just hope I don't mess up too bad._" A hand is placed on my shoulder. I look up to see Kaldur wearing a light blue t-shirt with a darker blue design and a jacket.

"Are you ready?" he asks.

"Uh, y-yeah." I stand up and we both head to the zeta tubes. In order to break the awkward silence I speak up.

"So, are we going to an ice cream parlor in Happy Harbor? I heard they had a new one that just opened a few days ago."

"Yes. I believe it was called the Ice Chest. I heard from S-…a friend, that the ice cream there was very good."

"Don't worry, I already know about Sparrow," I tell him.

A cool breeze blows as we walk down the street. We stop in front of the Ice Chest. Kaldur holds open the door for me like a gentleman.

"My lady." I blush a little and step through the door.

"Why thank you, kind sir." I smile as he follows. We both walk to the counter and look at all the flavors. The lady behind the counter speaks a greeting which seems like she had been using it all day.

"Good evening and welcome to the… Ice Chest." I look up at her, my eyes widening as I watch her watch Kaldur. She has long bright red hair that was only contained by a visor with the company logo. She looks like she belongs in a fashion model magazine rather than in an ice cream shop as a cashier. I look down kind of embarrassed.

"… and I don't have all day." I snapped my head up to see Darby, I read her name tag, scowling at me.

"Uh, what?" I ask dumbly.

"She wants to know what flavor ice cream you want." Kaldur says, smiling sweetly. This automatically makes me feel better.

"I would like the praline and pecan, please, in a cone," I say kindly.

"That will be $10.53, hon." Darby says with a flirty tone. Kaldur doesn't seem to notice. He simply gives her the money and takes the change. We head over to a booth in the corner.

As we sit down Kaldur says, "You don't have to worry." I give him a strange look.

"What do you mean? Why would I be worried over ice cream?" His eyes are serious but still kind. I look away.

"I mean you don't have to worry about competing for my affections." He rubs his neck nervously before looking back at me, "Because I like you for you Kate." I blush furiously. "In truth I was planning on taking you out on a date but I wasn't sure when would be the right time to ask… and I was afraid of rejection." I stare at him in shock.

"Why would you be rejected you're the most amazing guy I know," I quickly slap a hand over my mouth, blushing harder. "I mean um…" Kaldur chuckles.

"Thank you." We both laugh together but we're interrupted by a throat clearing. We both turn to Darby who's holding a tray with our ice cream. I confidently give her a look that says '_He's mine'. _She places the tray down, turns on her all too high heel and storms off. We eat in a comfortable silence, quickly finishing the ice cream so we can get out from under Darby's glare. We leave, me blowing on my fingers to warm them up. Kaldur notices my shivering, and cautiously wraps his arm around my shoulders. I blush, looking down and tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. Looking down at me, Kaldur picks up a piece of my hair, running his fingers over it.

"Have I told you that you look lovely tonight?" he asks softly.

"N-no…" I stutter, turning bright red. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I realize that I've blushed more tonight that I have in my entire lifetime. He leans down towards me, and my breath catches in my throat. Before our lips meet, I'm dragged back into an alleyway. My lips open to let out a yelp, but someone claps their hand over my mouth. They spin me around, slamming my face into a wall. I grunt in pain. _"Wait, why am I just standing here? You're a hero for Pete's sake!" _ I jerk my head back, slamming it into someone's nose. Their grip loosens, and I pull away. I twist their arm, and the positions switch. Now they're against the wall, and I have them pinned. I hear the thud of fist meeting flesh, and turn my head to see what's going on. Kaldur is standing over two men, both unconscious by the looks of it.

"Are you alright?" he asks with a worried expression.

"Just fine," I reply with a smile. Kaldur walks over and lightly touches my cheek.

"You're bleeding," he tells me, showing me his hand, now stained red.

"Oh," I say, staring at his hand. I almost reach up to touch my cheek, but realize I'm still pinning our would-be robber to the wall. "Well, I can clean up later. Do you think you could get the police?" Kaldur pauses before nodding, running off into the street. The man struggles, but I just push him harder against the wall.

"Look. I really like that boy, and he was about to kiss me before you ruined everything. I also have several knives, so don't try my patience," I growl. The man stops instantly. About a minute or so later, Kaldur comes back, leading two policemen, who immediately take charge of the situation. The younger one starts handcuffing the thugs while the older one starts cleaning my cut.

"So what happened?" he asks me, opening the first aid kid he brought. "I'm Officer Blake by the way."

"Well officer, Kaldur and I were walking along when that man," I nod at the one I had had pinned, "pulled me into the alley and shoved me against the wall, which is how I scraped my face." I pause to let him swipe an antiseptic cloth over said scrape, wincing at the slight sting. "But I've taken self-defense classes, so I was able to switch our positions while Kaldur knocked the other two out. And then he went and got you." At the end of my tale, Officer Blake places a bandage on my cheek.

"Well that'll be all then. I'd hang on to her if I were you," he tells Kaldur with a wink. "She's one tough lady." We both blush and stammer as he smiles. "Have a good night now." He nods at us, then walks off to help his partner. Kaldur and I start walking away at the same moment, not looking at each other. Even though we can't be more than a foot apart, it feels like a mile. In my head, I curse the robbers that ruined my evening.

"Tonight was….eventful," Kaldur comments. I make an agreeing noise. What I really want is for him to put his arm back around me. "Is something bothering you Kate?"

I look up guiltily. "No. Just thinking about how Happy Harbor has thugs."

"Yes, we should probably do some patrolling," Kaldur replies, looking off into the distance. Great, now he's going into leader mode. Don't get me wrong, I love it, but not on our date. Shaking his head, Kaldur looks at me. "My apologies. I should not be bringing business up tonight."

I smile. "It's alright."

"I have something I want to show you," Kaldur says suddenly. "Close your eyes." I do so, feeling very alone.

"How will I be able to walk anywhere?" I question. I sense Kaldur moving behind me, and my suspicions are proven correct when he places his hands on my shoulders.

"I'll guide you," he whispers, and I shiver at the feeling of his warm breath on the back of my neck. We walk in silence. I have no idea where he's taking me. After a while, I feel the ground change from concrete to packed dirt. Kaldur gently pulls me to a stop, and I can hear the faint sound of waves hitting the shore. "Open your eyes," he tells me, and I do. We're standing on a cliff, and the view is amazing. The ocean spreads out as far as I can see in all directions, only being interrupted in the form of Mount Justice.

"It's beautiful," I breathe, still staring at the ocean and moon and stars.

"Yes," Kaldur says. Something in his voice makes me look at him, and I realize he's been looking at me the whole time. And he's leaning down to me, and I don't have time to blush because our lips meet, and nothing else matters. I find myself turning so I can place my hands on his shoulders, steadying myself, and he's wrapping his arms around my waist, pulling me closer. His lips are so warm and inviting that I want to stay like this for forever. But all good things must come to an end, so eventually we break apart. I can feel myself grinning from ear to ear, but not for long, because this time I'm the one lifting my head to his, and we're kissing again.

**oooooooooooooo**

We finally get back to the cave around eleven, our fingers entwined. I keep glancing at Kaldur every few seconds, to make sure that he's still here, that this isn't a dream. We kiss one more time before heading off to our separate rooms. As soon as I walk into mine, I'm ambushed by several warm objects that I assume are my friends.

"Can't. Breathe," I wheeze out from under them, and they all get off me. I stand up, straightening my clothes.

"What happened to your face?" Sparrow gasps. "Was it Kaldur? I'm going to kill him!" Artemis is nodding in agreement, and even Megan has a murderous glint in her eye.

"No," I say with a laugh. "These guys tried to rob us, and I got shoved up against a wall during it. We handled them though," I add, looking at their shocked faces.

"Then what?" Sparrow asks.

"Then he showed me this cliff with a really pretty view of the ocean, and we…you know," I trail off into blushes.

"You kissed!" Sparrow exclaims. I nod, and the room dissolves into squeals as all four of us jump up and down. We only stop when someone pounds on the door. I open it to find Wally standing there with a huge smirk on his face.

"Does this mean I can go tease Kaldur now?" he asks.

"I guess?" I reply.

He shrugs. "Good enough for me." He walks off and I close the door. Turning back to the girls, we all smile, then start squealing again.

**So, I know I don't deserve them for making you wait so long, but please review? They really help motivate me (especially since I have no idea what I'm going to do now).**


	17. Chapter 17

**This is the beginning of a mini-arc the fabulous Shadow has written. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice (glad I don't right now, because I'd be getting so much hate mail) just Kate and kind of Tori.**

_**Tori **_

I'm sitting on the sofa telling Robin about the movie Kate, Kaldur, Artemis, and I saw last night. It was a movie Kate and I wanted to see for a while but she decided to bring Kaldur along and I feared it would have turned out like a date. That's where Artie came in handy. Because if I was going to be a third wheel, I wasn't going to be the only third wheel.

"So then the guy was like 'let's go check it out'. And I'm just like 'idiot, you never go down the dark creepy hallway'. And that was just the preview." Robin laughs and I smile.

"Yeah, it's like they're just whelmed with oblivity." Just then Zatanna walks by.

"Hey, Robin," She grins, and he turns to her.

"Sup, Zee." He turns away and they begin talking.

_"You jealous?"_ I think to myself. Of course I'm jealous. Technically, I have in no way, shape, or form denied that I may, or may not, have feelings for the Boy Wonder.

_"Stop making things difficult. You like him. I mean you've even got a plan in motion just so you can ask him out." _

_**"Shut up, brain."**_

_"Well its true isn't it?"_ I sigh. It's true that I have a plan and I've already finished step one. Next is step two. I clear my throat.

"Uh, hey, Zatanna. Could you help me in the kitchen with something? It's kind of important."

"Sure thing." We walk to the kitchen and I spot Roy leaning against the counter. He gives us a slight glance but then turns his attention back to his drink he had in his hand.

"Yo, step out." I say calmly.

"Sorry, kid. But I don't take orders from brats." He replies, taking a swig of his soda.

"That wasn't a request," I growl," It was a command."

"And if I don't?" I smirk.

"Then I guess I'm going to have to make you leave." I outstretch my hand and spread my fingers. A small portal opens up under him.

"What the-" Roy gasps. He shouldn't be surprised really. I do this to him all the time. He drops and where he lands I don't care. I wasn't focusing very hard on the second portal so it could be anywhere in the cave really. Zatanna leans on the counter and looks at me.

"So what's up?" she asks politely. I sit on the counter next to her and swing my legs a little. I take a deep breath.

"Well, I don't want to sound bossy or whiny or anything, but the things you do...well, they're starting to make me nervous."

"..."

"When I see you with Rob and he starts laughing it's like a small animal inside me is tearing up my stomach and my face starts to burn and I feel a little sad. I know I sound childish, and I might just be getting jealous too easily but when he smiles at you I just can't help but feel a little angry."

"..."

"Now don't get me wrong. I like you, and you're a really cool girl. I'm glad we got to be friends after the last few days, but...," I look at her, my face very serious, "I've known Robin longer than you have and probably liked him for longer. So, in honor of our friendship I would like to say that I am trying to politely tell you that if you don't step off we're going to have problems." There's a long pause as she looked at me, her eyes taking in all of my seriousness. She then starts out laughing, which catches me off guard.

"W-what's so funny?" I ask nervously.

"I've next to never seen you get so serious about something. Mmm, I dunno. I've pretty much got him in my clutches and I'm ready to go for the kill." My face feels hot. I grip the edge of the counter and look at her.

"What!" I yell. A playful smile spreads across her face as if my reaction is amusing. She stands up and gives me a giant hug.

"Aaah! You're just too cute!" After a bit of struggling Zatanna lets me go.

"You know I was just kidding with you, right? Robin and I are just friends," she laughs. My face heats up as I realize that I overreacted for nothing. I cough and nervously scratch the back of my neck.

"O-of course I did," I grin with her, "It's not like I didn't learn any detective skills from Batman." I know Zatanna is just a year older than me but she acts as if I'm a lot younger. She ruffles my hair and begins to exit the kitchen.

"Good luck, though. You get him, girl." She winks before disappearing. I groan and cover my face in embarrassment.

"Argh, it's like everyone is trying to mess with me today." I sigh and put my hands down. "Well at least I'm almost done. Only step three is left." I jump off the counter and as I land on the ground Wally walks in.

"There's a meeting in the Briefing room," he says while opening the fridge and grabbing some of the leftovers from inside. I sigh.

_"It looks like my plan will be delayed."_

/Later/

So this mission isn't a lame mission, but it isn't so important that we'd need to bring the whole team. A few minor criminals broke out of Belle Reve somehow, and one of the fools had thought it was a good idea to rob one of Happy Harbors banks. Unfortunately, we don't know how they escaped or where the others are, but we're hoping to squeeze the information from that one. Artemis, Robin, KF, and I had all agreed to go on this mission. Honestly, I've never heard of this guy. Batman said he called himself Soul Swap, or something. Like I said, a minor villain. I ride on my new motorcycle next to Robin. Mine is black with swirling purple designs.

"Hey, is that a new necklace?" Robin asks. I look down at my zei stone and see that it's sprouted two metal wires that wind around the outside. I smile.

"No, but this is actually a good sign. It means that I have been chosen to serve in as a Royal Guardian for the Royal Unit on Shadowland." Robin frowns.

"But don't worry. I won't be leaving soon." I speed up so I could scan the perimeter for Soul Swap. I hear where he is before I actually spot him. The bank's siren rings out and a man with messy brown hair runs out clutching a bag.

"STOP!" I yell. Of course, Soul Swap only runs faster. I click a button on my motorbike and it goes into autopilot. It's programmed to park in a safe place when I leave it. I stand on it and jump off, opening a portal and tackling the man. He squirms out of my grip and throws the bags of money at me. I instinctively catch them but stumble back from the force and weight of the bags.

"We got him," Wally says as he, Artemis, and Robin begin chasing after the man. Artemis shoots an arrow that releases a net that tangles around him. He trips over his feet and right as he fell KF punches him in the stomach. He hits the ground with a loud 'oof'. I jog over to join them as they stand over the man.

"Who you gonna call?" Wally mocks. Artemis rolls her eyes as Robin mutters something that sounds like "ghostbusters." The man's eyes flickers from one of us to the next. Quickly, he grabs a knife from his pocket, cuts the rope, and runs a few feet from us. He turns around and stretches his hands out.

"Look out!" I yell, jumping out of the way. Surprisingly, nothing happened. I glare at the man and stretch my arm towards him. He just laughs and starts running again.

"What the-? Why didn't a portal come out?"

"Don't worry. I've got it, sugar." Wally dashes forward but his amazing speed doesn't come. He stops and looks at himself, confused.

"Don't just stand there! He's getting away!" Artemis yells. We both sprint after Soul Swap, but as Artemis begins to run her speed increases immensely and she loses her balance and trips. I jump over her.

_"What's going on?"_ I know I'm not going to be able to catch up to him. Soul Swap is already a good distance away. As a last attempt I grab a small disc from my utility belt and throw it at him. It sticks like glue to the back of his shirt. I stop, breathing heavily.

"At least, we'll know where they're going." I mutter as I run back to my teammates. I help Artemis up and we carefully walk back to the boys.

"I think he might have switched our powers," I say, catching my breath.

"Naw, really. What would make you say that?" Artemis snaps. I stick my tongue out at her.

"At least I didn't trip over my feet. Wait…if you have Wally's speed and Wally and I have nothing then Robin must have…" My eyes widen.

"Sorry Artie, I need to get to Robin." I bolt back in the direction of my friends. A loud cry makes me run faster. I see Robin grab his neck and collapse on the ground. Puffs of black smoke seep from his skin.

"Don't tell me he fully swapped us." As I reach Robin his form shifts and he changes into a Shadowlander.

"Are you serious? Even your horns are larger than mine!" I whine as I unclip my cape and throw it over the majority of Robin's exposed skin.

"KF, help me out here!" I command. He strides over and with much difficulty we carry Robin's semi-unconcious body to the shade of a nearby tree, "Can you go see if you can find him some water?"

"Uh, no speed." I toss him the keys to my motorcycle.

"Just hurry," I say as I pull my cape off of Robin. I take off his mask and lightly slap him in the face.

"Ey, you need to get up." His eyes open slightly. They're an orangey red along with the mark on his neck.

"Good. Now pay close attention." I unclip my zei stone from my neck and cautiously stick my hand out in the sunlight. Just as I thought, my arm didn't burst into flame. I place my necklace around his neck.

"The creep swapped our powers and even managed to turn you into an alien, but don't freak." He gives me an odd look.

"Just focus on what you looked like before. Start with you eye color, that's probably the easiest." He closes his eyes and follows my instructions. When he opens them they're blue again.

"Next is the tail, then the legs, then everything else, m'kay." He nods and I put his mask back on. I run back for Artemis who's now crawling towards us.

"Uh, what are you doing?" She sighs.

"I tried to hurry, but ended up crashing into a tree. This power is so stupid, really." I laugh a bit and help her up again.

"You just haven't gotten used to it yet. I'm sure Wally would be glad to help you." She hangs her head.

"Great," she mutters sarcastically.

_"Yep, my plans are horribly delayed."_ I sit Artemis down next to the now fully human Robin.

"You guys, stay here. Robin, Wally is going to bring you some water. Just pour it on the places that burn. And drink some. It'll make your temperature feel slightly cooler. Do you think you can ride your motorcycle without any problems?" Robin nods.

"Okay, then Artemis, you're riding with me. I don't want you crashing anywhere just because you hit the gas too fast." I grin and went to go get Robin and Wally's bikes. As I walk back Wally rides past me with water in hand.

I hook a plug in my glove into Robin's motorcycle and program it to park by the tree. I jump on Artemis's and ride it back. Everyone seems to calm down and get situated on the bikes. "We've got a lot of explaining to do to Batman," I say. We all shudder.

"That's why you're going to do it," Wally tells me.

"What!" I yell.

"Well, you are the only one who seemed to be doing okay with this temporary predicament." Artemis agrees.

"How do you know it's temporary?"

"Well, we would have heard of him before if it wasn't," Robin reasons.

"But, why me..." I groan. They all just stare at me.

"Fine," I grumble, cracking under the pressure, "But at least it wasn't a total waste. I got a tracker on him." We all nod in agreement, hoping that would be enough to keep us from some of Batman's fury. With that we all ride off back to the cave.

**Yo, it's Shadow here. So this chapter is prep for the next chapter and maybe some fluff between Robin and Sparrow. Yeah, I'm just warning you I'm not that good at writing fluff so I'll probably have sunflower help me out some. By guys and thanks for the reviews. Keep em coming. ;)**


	18. Chapter 18

**Hey! Sorry for not updating last week, but I only had one chapter left (this one) and no time to write, so I'd figured you'd rather be left hanging there than here. I'm just gonna let you read now.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice or any of its characters, or any villains unless otherwise specified.**

_**Tori**_

I walk into Robin's temporary room to see him practicing codes on his computer. He stands up when I walk in.

"So how'd it go-" I punched him in the arm.

"Jerk! I'm getting a_ report_ from _Batman_ about _everything_ I did wrong on this mission. Argh! Apparently, I was unknowingly given the role as the leader of this mission."

"WHAT!" Robin cried, rubbing his shoulder. I didn't hit him hard enough to bruise him though.

"Why wasn't I nominated? This totally lacks aster," he frowns.

"Honestly I don't know," I say, rubbing the toe of my boot against the ground, "I don't want to be leader. It's not really my thing. Why? Did you want to be leader?" He shrugs and then nods.

"Not important. Even if these powers are temporary I still need to at least know the basics for when we find their hideout." I'm puzzled by how easily he dismissed my question but realize that he's right. I need to at least teach him the necessities.

"Okay. I'm not going to get into the making weapons out of shadows because that'd take too long, so you'll have to rely on your utility belt for the most part. However we can work on teleportation. You may not be able to do long distances but I can at the very least teach you how to teleport out of harm's way and teleport other things." He smiles and we both walk to the training room. I bring him over to one side and tell him to focus on the middle of the room.

"Now close your eyes and imagine yourself in that spot. Imagine everything in that area surrounding you and no longer standing here." He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. His form shifts slowly and disappears from where I am. He then appears in an area near the target.

"It's not exactly where you wanted to be but you did well for your first try." He opens his eyes and looks at where he's standing.

"Try it a few more times. See if you can get more accurate." He walks back to a wall and teleports to the center. He's a lot closer this time. The third time he gets it perfectly. He tries it seven more times before we're both sure he has teleporting down.

"Alrighty then, now teleporting during combat," I say typing commands to the virtual sparring mat. It glows and I stand in the center opposite of Robin.

"Initiate combat training in three...two..." the computer counts down. "One." I lunge at Robin, throwing a punch. He quickly blocks it and teleports behind me. I slide to the side just narrowly missing a punch. I swing my elbow around as I spin back around. I keep punching at him one after the other until he finally disappears. He kicks me from behind and I fall.

"Fail. Sparrow." the robotic voice announces. Robin laughs.

"Yeah, yeah laugh it up now," I mutter before swiping my leg across and tripping him. He laughs as he falls.

"Fail. Robin." We giggle as we stand up. I smirk and lock arms with robin. He's pretty strong but I'm better at keeping my balance and being defensive. I push him back a few steps before he lets go, grabbing me under the arms and teleporting me up about six feet in the air. I don't know what he's trying to accomplish, but I grab him and flip him, using his weight to throw him down.

"Fail. Robin." I softly land on my feet and kneel down to him.

"I guess I had the last laugh, huh?" I quip, raising an eyebrow and breathing hard. He props himself up on his elbow.

"I guess so," he says, also trying to catch his breath. He gives me his quirky smile and I blush a bit. I glance around the room, noticing that our faces are extremely close together. Even though we're wearing our shades it seems like our eyes are locked. I feel myself lean down slowly and he shifts himself too. We're now facing each other alone, on the floor, in the training room.

_"Do it."_

_**"That's not a part of the plan."**_

_"Forget the plan. You may never have another chance like this."_ So I go for it. Of course, instead of softly pressing my lips against his, I get jumpy and kind of make our lips collide roughly. I quickly pull back.

"S-sorry." I run out and throw the door to my room open. I slam it close and lock the door. Grabbing a pillow, I crawl under my bed. I bury my face in it and scream.

"Stupid! It has hit the fan! Really hard! All that planning for nothing! Way to fail, Tori!" I relax and just lay my head on the pillow.

"Team, report to the briefing room, immediately," Batman's voice booms over the intercom. I roll out from under the bed.

"Maybe a mission will take my mind off that disaster." I mutter, joining everyone in the room, avoiding looking at Robin.

"We have been able to pinpoint the location that the escaped felons have been using as a hideout. We have also obtained the names of these felons. First, there's Adam Greene, otherwise known as Soulswap. We have returned him to his prison where he has more guards watching over him. Next, is Abner Krill, Roy G. Bivolo, Geppetto Walker, and Richard Swift. Otherwise known as Mr. Polka-Dot, Rainbow Raider, Mister Geppetto, and Shade." Images of the men were pulled up on the screen.

"And finally..." The screens clear and one last image pops up.

"Jackson Kindle." An albino young man pops up. I groan.

"I swear, I'm going to kill that boy." Everyone turns to me.

"My big bro," I state plainly, pointing at the screen.

"What?" Wally asks, peering closer at the screen, then back at me.

"How could a hot babe like you be related to that creep?" Batman gives him a little glare at his flirtations.

"Watch your tongue. That's my brother you're talking about," I snap. He backs down.

"Sorry..."

"It's alright. Eh, I guess he thought this form would make it easier to avoid the sun and he'd seem a little less suspicious, but honestly he looks like the poster boy for Shady magazine," I look back at Batman, "Where are they?"

"They're in a hidden warehouse in Fairbanks, Alaska."

"Alaska..." We all whine. We're shut up by Batman's glare.

"Now, go." he orders. We nod and all disperse to change into warmer clothes before heading for the bioship. I wear a white outfit with longer, thicker sleeves and tights. The hood of my cape and the cuffs of my clothes were lined with a soft fur-like material. My gloves are a light shade of gray and still reach up to my elbows. The soles of my boots are thicker and better built for traveling. I also wear a thick winter jacket. As we climb into the bioship I move towards Kate.

"Um... can we swap seats?" I ask cautiously, looking at Robin.

"Sure. Why? What happened?" she asks looking worried. I smile.

"I'll fill you in later." I sit down in the chair and in a moment it straps me in. Kate sits in my chair and looks at Robin. I guess she can't wait because she looks like she's asking Robin something. He just shrugs and Kate frowns.

"Ready for takeoff," Miss Martian states. " Red Tornado, open the hangar." The doors slide open and we jet out. There's a hovering silence over everyone in the bioship, so like the oven during Thanksgiving, I break it.

"It's kinda cramped in here, huh?"

"All the better, since I'm sitting next to you, babe," Wally says, leaning in next to me.

_"That's right. Kate sits closer to Wally."_

"Grow up," Artemis scoffs.

"Hey! I'm very mature for my age," Wally protests.

"Yeah. You're so mature you're flirting with the thirteen year old," Artemis replies.

"No fighting you two," Kaldur says, calming them down, "We must be prepared for anything they throw at us."

"You're not going to go lone wolf on us, huh Roy." I smirk at him as he narrows his eyes at me.

"I'm just afraid you're going to pass out in the middle of something."

"Hey, that was that one time...and I was drugged."

"Hmm. Guess someone can't hold their chloroform." He smiles slightly.

"Pfft." I lean back in my chair and close my eyes. I don't know if I fall asleep or what, but when I open my eyes we had already reached the first drop zone. I unstrap myself and stand by the hole that forms on the floor.

Megan relays our roles. "We'll bring everyone to the scouting points and check out the inside. You and Robin will watch this area for any signs of suspicious activity while Artemis and Roy watch from the second point. We'll meet up on my signal."

"Alright. Let's go." I hook the zip line from the roof of the ship to my belt. I drop down and release the hook, landing in the snow with Robin in tow. I turn back to the ship and give a thumbs up. It goes back into camouflage mode and flies off. I look around.

"Snow, snow, and more snow." I turn back to Robin and stick my hands in my pockets.

"So, what are we looking out for? If anything is suspicious here, it's us."

"Who knows? Maybe some bad guy will stumble across here and..."

"Ha, you're describing them as if they were a baby deer instead of criminals who escaped from jail." We laugh. A gust of dry wind blows past us. I shiver.

"I hate the cold," I comment through chattering teeth.

"Haha. Look at this."

"Wha-oh... I forgot about that." Robin had changed into a Shadowlander again and with the natural high temperature he now has, plumes of steam start rising off of him.

"Lucky, I'm freezing over here and you look like you just stepped out of a sauna."

"Feels like it, too. Phew." He takes off his snow jacket.

"Whoa." I take a step back.

"What?"

"It seems like you've even developed the wings."

"WHAT!?" He cranes his neck to see the black wings that had phased through his clothes. His jaw drops. "But you didn't have wings when you transformed."

"That's because only males have wings. Females, on the other hand, have longer tails and more rows of teeth. They're also supposed to have larger horns, but I guess I prove that hypothesis wrong." I sigh, "They're embarrassingly small." Robin pats me on the back.

"They'll come around," he says trying to cheer me up. One of his wings stretched out around me, then curls back in, coaxing me to get closer to him. I just stand there awkwardly standing next to him and kind of basking in his radiant heat.

"You want to talk about... earlier?" he asks, testing the waters.

"No." There's a moment of silence. Once again, like the last goon I saw's nose, I break it.

"So you want to be the leader? Well, I personally think you've got the guts it's just...will you change when you get the power. Like when you're the leader, you'll have to think and consider everything. No time for witty banter. And witty banter is you. That's probably why I wouldn't ever want to be leader. I like how I am now and maybe one day... and I'm rambling." Robin just watches me.

"Fine. Since we really should get this straightened out before we go fighting. Okay, so yeah we kissed. No biggie. Okay, if it bothers you so much, we can both just pretend it never happened. I just made a stupid decision and may or may not have forced myself on you and made you feel uncomfortable for it. I'm sorry for that. I just hope it doesn't make things weird between u-"

"Well you did kind of hit my teeth." I blush and turn away.

"Yeah, sorry for that too."

"So, I didn't get to enjoy it as much as I wanted to." I stiffen and slowly turn around.

"Are you messing with me?" He ignores my question.

"Tell me, was that your first kiss?" I choke on the comment.

"I'll take that as a yes?" He grins, giving me a wink. I look down at my shoes. My face burns hotly.

_"Step three."_ I think, grabbing his arm.

"Look, Rob-...no... Dick, I like you a lot and you make me feel like the feeling is mutual so, um, would you like to go out with me. Of course, if you were just leading me on... well, I'm going to punch you in the face and Kate may kill you afterwards." I shrug and look back at him hopefully. He laughs.

"Yeah. Of course." He leans down and kisses me softly. I smile. We looked around again, but once again saw nothing but snow.

"Hey, look. I'm back to normal." He's back to being a human and I open a portal a few feet away and dump the snow in a different area.

"You're right," I say, picking up and handing him his jacket. He gives me back my necklace in return. I clear my throat.

_"Team! We're being surrounded in the building."_ Megan's thoughts intercept my own.

_"We're on our way!"_ I send back. Robin and I run back to the building. We scale up the wall and onto the roof to see what's going on. It's really dark on the inside and hard to see. Dim lighting reveals Megan, Connor, Zatanna, and Wally surrounded by our villains.

"It seems like you're outnumbered, now," Rainbow Raider laughs. An arrow flies in through the crack in the front door. It jams itself into a rusty pipe and smoke seeps off of it making a thick fog. Robin and I jump down off the roof, joining everyone in the center.

"Ha, looks like we're _in_numbered now," I quip.

"Hey, I was going to say that!" Robin tells me.

"Mmm. Not quite." Geppetto cackles. Shade raises his cane and it absorbs the darkness, revealing a bunch of robots.

"Now we're outnumbered," I frown. Once again it's hit the fan.

**Yeah, you know the drill. Review. And here's the shipping name for Tori/Dick: Lovebirds. If you have one for Kate and Kaldur, tell me, because currently, I have nothing, and Shadow's is Magic Cod.**


	19. Chapter 19

**Hiya! Look, I'm actually updating on schedule! Want to know my secret writing time? Five. In the morning. Nothing gets creative juices flowing like being half-asleep! I worked all mornings on this. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own so many things, but here are a few I do: Kate, Tori, Gepetto, and Gina the Spectacular. Oh, and a miraculous power to make babies cry as soon as I pick them up.**

_**Kate**_

I watch Sparrow and Robin jump out at the first drop zone, and Kid Flash and Red Arrow at the second. Megan lands the bioship and opens the door. We walk out. I shiver a little, despite my extra layers and a few spells. What can I say? I'm from the South.

"Miss Martian, Superboy, you'll take the eastern half of the warehouse. Silver and I will take the western half. Artemis and Zatanna will take the roof. Miss Martian, set up a link between us." Megan raises a hand to interrupt.

"Actually, I can sense another psychic, which means that if I set up a link, they could sense us in return."

"Well, in that case, only use a telepathic link if necessary." Megan nods, and walks off to the right with Superboy. Artemis takes off at what I suppose is a slow run for a speedster with Zatanna muttering a spell and taking off almost as fast as her, and Kaldur and I start walking to the left. I blow on my fingers, trying to warm them up some. We come to a wooden door, a chain and padlock wrapped around the two handles.

"Let me," I say. Tugging on the chain around my neck, I pull a small knife out from under my shirt. I stick it in the lock, wiggle it around some, then pull. The lock pops off. I unravel the chain and drop it onto the snowy ground. Kaldur pulls the door open, and we go inside. It's completely dark. I light up my stone, bathing everything in a dim purple light.

"Which way?" Kaldur whispers. I shrug. He goes left, and I follow. Ugh, I have no idea how to act. How in the world did Megan do this?

"So who do you think the psychic is?" I ask, trying to pull a Sparrow and break the silence.

"Now is not the most opportune time for conversation." I falter a little bit. Ouch. Suddenly, Kaldur throws his arm out, catching me in the chest. Oooowwww. "Do you hear that?" he mutters. I cock my head, listening. I can hear faint voices a long ways away. As in, far enough away not to practically knock your girlfriend over to get her to stop.

"Yeah," I reply.

"_Team! We're being surrounded in the building,"_ Megan practically screams over a link. I jump a little, then start running, right on the heels of Kaldur. We arrive at the main room right as one of the Arrows shoots their namesake, releasing a nauseous gas. I resist the urge to gag, instead rushing to join everyone in the center of the room. Sparrow and Robin banter with the Gepetto, which leads Shade to reveal a bunch of giant robots. Yay. This should be easy. Magic usually blows technology stuff up.

_"Zatanna, Robin, and Sparrow, you take Mr. Polka Dot,"_ Kaldur begins.

_"No way, I'm going after my big brother. He needs some sense beaten into him,"_ Sparrow retorts.

_"Fine. Artemis, go after Soulswap. Superboy, you get Gepetto and his robots. Kid, Red Arrow, take Shade. Miss Martian, find that psychic. Silver and I will take Rainbow Raider."_

_ "Yeah, that won't work. Magic goes all flooey when emotions are involved," _I tell him.

_"Alright, Kid and Red Arrow, you take Rainbow Raider. Silver and I will handle Shade."_ We all rush to our respective villains. Shade cackles and summons two beams of shadows, similar to Kaldur's swords, which are ready to go. I fire a bolt of magic. Shade dodges and lunges forward, swords going wild. I duck and block a blow to the head with a shield. Shade's swords dissolve and my entire field of vision is drowned in darkness. I grip my shield and one of my knives tightly. All of my muscles tense and I listen out for any movement.

"Rah!" There's a grunt and the darkness is momentarily split down the middle. I turn and see that Sparrow, who has turned alien, has split the darkness and is now holding off a large robot with her scythe. She pushes upward and slices through the robot, its mechanical body splitting and collapsing on the ground.

"Use light!" she yells. She then runs off towards two other robots which are besides her brother. As she runs I can see strange pale yellow things jutting out of her back, between her shoulder blades. Bright purple stains parts of the things and a faint yet familiar smell fills my nostrils.

_"Blood."_ I thing, my eyes widening.

"Kate, look out!" Kaldur shouts. Once again I'm shrouded in darkness. This time I'm prepared and so is Kaldur. His eel tattoos shine brightly in the dark, and I remove the rest of my knives. I slide my hands over the blades, flexing my fingers as I do so. They all begin to glow and levitate off the ground. They circle around me and give me light to see. Just as I find Shade he lifts his cane at me. I flip out of the way of a beam of darkness and land in a crouched position in front of Shade, holding my shield up so I won't be hit by any more beams. Pushing my arm upward, I slam the shield into Shade's stomach, right as Kaldur pulls his legs out from underneath him with a well-placed water whip. As he falls his cane crashes on the ground. Shade gasps and reaches for it, but I quickly pin his arm down with my foot. Kaldur picks up the cane and snaps it over his knee before dropping it on the ground again.

"I did not get paid enough for _this_," Shade grumbles as he stares at his destroyed item. I snap magic chains around him before he can move. Panting a little, I smile at Kaldur. He smiles back, and I relax a little. It was probably just nerves.

Peering around, I see that everyone is wrapping up nicely. Surprisingly, Rainbow Raider is causing the most trouble. Kid Flash (or would it be Kid Arrow) and Red Arrow shoot arrow after arrow at him, but he dodges it all. I suppose it doesn't help that he zapped Kid with green, making him jealous of Red's skills, and Red with blue, making him overly depressed. He shoots a red beam at Kid, but he ducks, and it goes wild. It bounces off a few robots, a wall, and rebounds towards us, hitting Kaldur.

I blink as Kaldur takes on a reddish tone. He also gains a scowl. I start backing away as he turns to me.

"Why do you always mess up?" he growls. I don't answer, trying to remember how to get him back to normal. "You never take the lead, you just stand there until someone tells you to do something. No one likes you."

"You do," I say impulsively, regretting it the moment it comes out of my mouth.

Kaldur laughs, an awful, grating sound that sets my teeth on edge. "What makes you think that? That I went on a date with you? Kissed you? I did that all with Tula too." I take a step back, shocked. "Oh yes, didn't I tell you? I have a girlfriend back in Atlantis. Why would I want a worthless brat like you?" It's not him, it's not him. This isn't him talking. Right? He stalks towards me, and I instinctively throw up my hands. He grabs my wrists and holds them tightly.

"Ow, ow, ow," I mutter.

"Oh, I'm sorry, am I hurting you?" Kaldur smirks, squeezing tighter. I let out a whimper. Looking around, I try to make eye contact with someone. But Sparrow is scolding her brother, Kid and Red are still fighting, Megan is in some sort of psychic battle, Superboy is chasing after Gepetto, and Zatanna and Robin are dodging giant dots. But Artemis is free. I catch her eye, then jerk my chin in Rainbow's direction. She nods. I yank Kaldur's feet out from under him, sending us both crashing to the ground. Rolling off of him, I throw a knife in Rainbow's direction. He easily dodges, but ends up right in the path of a speeding Artemis. He gets knocked over, and Artemis pins him to the ground. Kaldur, Kid, and Red go back to normal coloring.

Rushing over, I do the same chain spell to Rainbow like I did to Shade. Sparrow walks over, dragging her brother by the ear. Superboy punches Gepetto in the face, knocking him out cold. And Zatanna says a spell that reverses all the discuses back on Mr. Polka-dot.

"Artemis, where is Soulswap?" Kaldur asks. She pales.

"Oh…I was chasing him…but then I had to help Silver." Everyone spins around wildly, trying to locate the wayward villain.

"There!" Robin shouts, pointing to a corner of the warehouse. We all start to run forward, but Soulswap steps into the light.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. I would hate to ruin such a pretty little neck," he warns. He has Megan. And my knife is to her throat. We all freeze. "See, all I had to do is get our psychic-"

"It's Gina the Spectacular!" a girl's voice shouts from above. I look up and see there isn't anything really "spectacular" about her. She looks like an average girl with a headset on and a remote controller in her hand.

"Yes, yes, her," Soulswap continues. "I just had to distract your psychic with my psychic, then sneak up on her. And, an added bonus was this knife coming out of nowhere." I blush. "Now, let me get to the helipad, and then I'll knock the girl out and release her. No one can follow." We all shift, looking to Kaldur to lead. But he's looking at something else. Sparrow. She's subtly twitching her fingers. I squint trying to make out what she's moving. Shadows are slowly creeping up on Soulswap. Suddenly, Sparrow jerks her arms up, and the shadows yank Soulswap's arms wide releasing Megan, who scrambles back to us. Soulswap struggles, managing to get one arm free. He throws the knife, and we all scatter, Sparrow letting go of him. He disappears.

"Did anyone get hit?" Robin asks.

"Nope," Sparrow shouts.

"I'm good," Zatanna replies.

"Clear!" Red yells. "So is Kid."

"Same for me and MM," Superboy says.

"Ditto," I tell him. Then there's silence. I blanch. Kaldur. Spinning around, I run to him. The knife is hilt deep in his shoulder.

"Gosh darnit Kaldur!" I yell. "Come on, guys, we need to get him back to the bioship." Megan levitates him, the others grab the villains, and we all start running. It seems like forever until we get to the ship. "Megan, start flying to the mountain. I need a table in the center. Everyone else, to the walls. Now!" Everyone jumps into action. The table rises up out of the floor, and Superboy hefts Kaldur onto it. He lets out a groan, and I bite my lip.

"Shhhh, it's going to be alright," I murmur. "Now, there's going to be a little pinch, I'm sorry." I pull the knife out as quickly as possible. Kaldur groans. "Easy, easy. Just a little while longer." I place my hands over the gaping hole and focus. I feel our heartbeats and breathing sync, and my stone starts glowing. Slowly, the wound beneath my hands starts closing up. It hissed as the muscles and tissues fused back together, sealing the wound. Finally it's all healed. Sighing, I take my hands away. The only thing left is dried blood. Wiping my face with the back of my hand (and probably smearing blood all over it), I lean against the table. Healing is always draining, especially after a fight.

"Is he going to be alright?" Sparrow asks timidly.

"Yeah."

"Are you okay?" She moves closer.

"I should be asking you that," I reply, remembering that she was bleeding earlier, "What happened?" I turn her around and take off her cape to examine her back. Her uniform had caked on alien blood and dirt on it, but there are no wounds on her back. There aree only two scars where the things were.

"Oh, that... well, I'm not entirely certain, but I think it has something to do with becoming a Guard." She had told me about this once before.

_ "It's an honor, or something, to become a guard on her planet."_ I think to myself.

"Well, males on my planet have wings, but they can't really fly. They have to jump off of high points and glide on wind currents. Guards on the other hand have different types of wings. They are made of bone I think, and Guards use the shadows in the clouds to maneuver with them. I didn't have any feathers though so I probably shouldn't try it." She laughs a bit at the last part. "But seriously Kate are you alright?" I sigh.

"Just a little tired. How much longer Megan?"

"Not long. About three quarters of an hour." We all stand in silence until the bioship flies into the cave.

"Megan, can you take him to the infirmary? It's probably best for him to stay there for now," I tell her. She nods and smiles, and levitates him away. We all follow after her.

"Kate what happened? There's blood all over you," Black Canary rushes forward and takes me by the shoulders.

"Soulswap threw a knife, it landed in Kaldur's shoulder. I had to get it out. I healed it though. We got everyone but Soulswap. They're in the ship. Can I go change? I want to check on Kaldur." Black Canary looks me up and down one more time, then nods and lets me go. I go to my room and scrub my hands and face, and change into a t-shirt and sweats. I go to the infirmary. Kaldur is on the third bed to the left. I drag a chair over from the wall next to it and sit down. Taking his hand, I settle down for a wait.

Someone says my name, and my eyes snap open.

"Wha-?" I ask, half-asleep.

"Kate."

"Kaldur?" I grin before tackling him in a hug. "Oh, thank goodness!" He tentatively wraps his arms around me. "Oh, I'm sorry. Your shoulder may still be sore."

"No, that's not it."

"Well what is it? Are you hurt somewhere else?" I crawl up next to him and lay down.

"I'm sorry."

"What for?"

"For what I said. Earlier."

"Kaldur, that wasn't you," I laugh. "That was Raider."

"I still said it. I was aware of what I was saying. I knew what I was doing. I hurt you." He links his fingers with mine and holds up my hands, revealing my slightly yellowing wrists.

"Nothing I can't handle," I shrug. "But…who's Tula?" Kaldur stiffens slightly.

"A girl from Atlantis. Before I met you. And she has a boyfriend, my friend Garth."

"Okay," I smile up at him. He tilts his head down and kisses me. I sigh in pleasure. He pulls back, smiling down at me. I stifle a yawn.

"Go to sleep," Kaldur tells me. I nod, snuggling up against him. "I meant in your own room…"

"Too tired," I mumble. He kisses the top of my head, and I drift off.

**Awwww, so sweet! Right? Oh, and I got a shipping name! Trident. Thank Shadow for it. Review, s'il vous pla****ît!**


	20. Chapter 20

**Hey! Yet another fabulous update, by Shadow this time. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice or any characters except Kate, Tori, and any others mentioned. Like Soulswap and Gina the Spectacular. If you want to rent them, just ask. The price is one review.**

"_Zatanna, Robin, and Sparrow, you take Mr. Polka Dot,"_ Kaldur's message interrupts my train of thought as I'm about to say a quick comeback to Geppetto.

_"No way, I'm going after my big brother. He needs some sense beaten into him,"_ I think back. Besides I didn't think he came here on his own. Maybe he was forced here...the answers are still unclear, but I'm ready to find out.

_"Fine. Artemis, go after Soulswap. Superboy, you get Geppetto and his robots. Kid, Red Arrow, take Shade. Miss Martian, find that psychic. Silver and I will take Rainbow Raider."_ I smile at our new positions.

_ "Yeah, that won't work. Magic goes all flooey when emotions are involved," _Kate corrects.

_"Alright, Kid and Red Arrow, you take Rainbow Raider. Silver and I will handle Shade. And if the robots charge at you feel free to take them out."_ And with that we're off. I run towards the first two robots I see and pull my scythe out of the shadow on the ground.

"Come on, Bandy." I whistle quickly and my loyal shadow dog jumps from the ground. I grin and set him loose. He jumps on the first robot and sinks his claws into its metal chest. I teleport up and use him as a platform momentarily so I can flip and make a clean slice down the middle of the next robot. I balance myself on the robot's head and scan the area for my brother. Suddenly, a strong force hits me in the back, making me lose my focus and balance. I regain my balance and whirl around to see my brother. I chuckle.

"Sup, big bro. So, you're with the bad guys now." He doesn't respond. He only sways side to side slightly. He lifts a limp arm and shoots another blast of shadow at me. I teleport up and twist my body so that I land on my hands in front of him. I pull in my legs and shoot them out, kicking him in the face. He lands with a loud thump on his back. A grunt is heard from somewhere else in the warehouse but I guess it's just Superboy.

"You should give up, though. I'm pretty sure I could take you in a fight, so..." He doesn't respond. Instead, he throws his body forward into a sitting position and moves to stand. I just stare at him.

_"Something seems off about him,"_ I think. I tilted my head slightly to see his red eyes seemed faded and tired. Occasionally his face twisted in pain. I frowned.

_"Megan, something is wrong with my brother. I think the psychic s controlling him."_

_"That is a possibility, but they seem to have kept themself hidden well."_

_"I've got an idea but listen out for anything out of place."_

_"Okay." _ I rush towards my brother and teleport just above his head. As I come down I kick him in the jaw. He spirals out of control and slams into the nearby wall. I land softly on my feet and hear someone yell, "Dang it!"

_"Megan! Behind the boxes!"_ She turns towards a pile of boxes stacked and uses her powers to move them out of the way. There she reveals a girl holding a game controller and headset. She scowls at Megan. I guess they get into some psychic battle because both just stare at each other without blinking for a while. The rapid motion of the girl's hands on the remote snapped me back to my task at hand all too late. A metal hand grabs me and throws me into the air. Too shocked to react I hit the ground, all of the breath coming out of me. Luckily, it didn't feel like anything was broken. As I pushed myself up and saw a shadow on the ground growing larger and larger.

"Bandy!" I shouted. Immediately, as I rolled back over to see a huge metal hand racing down to me, my trusty shadow dog transformed into a scythe and flew into my hand. The robot didn't have enough time to react because his fist was slice in half. I jumped to my feet and sliced the hand off. I sliced down another section of its arm and look around to reassess my surroundings. I see shade cloud Kaldur and Kate's vision with some sort of shadow fog. I gripped my scythe and concentrated on turning the light particles back on. I changed back to my natural form, my tail flicking in excitement.

"Rah!" I growled slicing my scythe through the air. The force had cut a significant size rip in the fog. A turned just as the robot tried to slam its other fist on me. Holding it off with the staff of my blade. I yelp slightly as I feel a hot and sharp pain spread across my back. It felt like claws were digging into my back. There is a sharp ripping sound and I immediately ripped my cape off. I look at my back to see it is bleeding bright purple to match my tattoo and zei stone. Pale, yellow, bonelike structures are jutting out of my skin. The robot's pressed down harder, forcing me on one knee. With a growl, I push the robot back and cut his chest open. I see my brother standing next to two other robots.

"Use light!" I yell back to Kate and Kaldur as I run at him. His form shifts and shadows explode out of his back. They form spider legs and lift him off the ground. I stared at him, barely believing that the girl psychic was still controlling him while she was battling Megan. Jackson hissed, his tale lashing violently. One of the robots moves only to be pounded by Superboy.

"I've got this. Take care of your brother." he said. I nodded and teleported near his font legs. With wire from my utility belt me teleport around him, tying my rope to heavy objects. He tries to move away from the wire but every time, I'd just punch or kick him back to his spot. Dodging all of his attacks I kick him in the face, making him collapse on the ground. He stands and hisses still. His eyes still don't look fixated on anything. He lifts both arms and shoots shadow blasts at me rapidly.

"Geez, I didn't hope it'd have to come to this." I opened my mouth slightly and felt a strange click. I crouched down on the ground and threw myself through a portal. I teleported and twisted my body around all of the blasts until I finally reached Jackson. I let go of my scythe and grabbed him by the throat and threw him down. I pinned him down with my knee on his chest but he still struggled. He tried to push me off, but I bound his hands with my tail.

"Sorry, bro," I said with an apologetic half smile. I pushed up the sleeve of his jumpsuit on one of his arms and bit his forearm. His eyes widened and he tried to thrash around, but it was too late. The venom was kicking in and I sat back as he slowly stopped moving. I returned to being human. I looked down at my hands and focused on creating a small dart. After making it I opened a portal above the psychic's controlled with much force I threw the dart. It lodged itself under a button and the control broke.

"Thith." A slightly feeble sound turned me back to Jackson who is back in his human form as well.

"Yeah?" I responded leaning over him like a vulture over road kill.

"Where am I? What happened? Why can't I move?" His eyes are wide and flickering around. He can't move his head but he can see and speak.

"Uh, some chick tried to make you kill me, but I took care of it."

"Theriouthy? What are you wearing?"

"Hero getup minus the cape," I say proudly. A stray robot runs at us, but I pull Bandersnatch out of a nearby shadow and cut him down.

"You look rediculouth."

"I'm not the one paralyzed on the floor, now am I?"

"Eh, I gueth tho. I'm thtill better than you, though." I stare at him in disbelief!

"ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME!? DUDE I JUST TOOK OUT LIKE A HANDFUL OF EVEIL ROBOTS WAY BIGGER THAN ME, CUT OPEN A CLOUD OF DARKNESS, CHANGED MY SHADOWDOG INTO A SCYTHE AND BACK INTO A SHADOW, TOOK YOU OUT, AND AM OFFICIALLY A GUARD! AND WHAT DID YOU DO?! OH THAT'S RIGHT?! YOU WENT AND GOT YOURSELF CAPTURED BY A GAMER GIRL PSYCHIC! PA-THE-TIC! SO DON'T GO TELLING ME YOU'RE STILL BETTER THAN ANYONE!"

"Well, I didn't make a teeth necklace." He smirked. I slapped my hand over my face and slowly dragged it down.

"Oh my gosh dude, just... just shut up." He sticks his tongue out at me and I hit him in the forehead with the back of my hand. He is stunned for a moment.

"Hey, what wath that for!" he whined

"Maybe if I hit you hard enough your brain will reset," I mutter under my breath as I pull him by his ear to my friends. I see Kate chain the rainbow guy and dropped my bro next to him.

_"He isn't a bad guy, and he didn't come here willingly. I wonder if he'll have to serve longer time for this though. Maybe if I explain-"_

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. I would hate to ruin such a pretty little neck!" I look up and see Soulswap in a corner with a knife to Megan's throat. My blood runs cold.

"See, all I had to do is get our psychic-" He continues speaking.

"It's Gina the Spectacular!" The psychic girl yells.

_"Psh. yeah right, and I'm Sparrow the Amazing," _I think rolling my eyes. Soulswap continues to explain how we all slipped up and making demands. I'm not really focusing on what he's saying and he starts to sound like the adults in Charlie brown. I curl my fingers slowly and make two humanish shadows slowly creep behind Soulswap. At the right moment I jerked my arms up and the shadows grabbed him, forcing him to release Megan. She makes it back over to us, but being a sore loser, instead of surrendering Soulswap throws the knife at us. We all move out the way, none of us too keen on getting stabbed. We do a role call to make sure everyone was alright. I look at our baddies and see that none of them look injured. Everyone else said they were fine, except Kaldur. He was stabbed in the shoulder. Kate scolds him and we all rush him to the bioship. I put my cape back on before I left and teleported the villains with me. I dump them into the back of the ship, in a holding cell. I walk into the main part of the ship and see Kate, like a boss, grab hold of the blade and pull it out. She then healed the wound with her magic.

"Is he going to be alright?" I ask a little scared. Kaldur is lying so still he looks almost dead. Or sleeping. I guess everyone looks like their dead when they're asleep.

"Yeah," She says.

"Are you okay?" I ask moving closer. She looked tired and worn out.

"I should be asking you that," she said concerned "What happened?" She took off my cape and looked at my back. There were probably still bloodstains on my back and uniform. "Oh, that... well, I'm not entirely certain, but I think it has something to do with becoming a Guard," I said. Kate was always pretty curious about my home planet, so I'd tell her little facts about the things I knew and things I deemed important.

"Well, males on my planet have wings, but they can't really fly. They have to jump off of high points and glide on wind currents. Guards on the other hand have different types of wings. They are made of bone I think, and Guards use the shadows in the clouds to maneuver with them. I didn't have any feathers though so I probably shouldn't try it." I laugh a bit. It made me happy to know that I might be able to fly soon.

I asked. She sighed.

"Just a little tired. How much longer Megan?" The Martian girl says we have almost an hour. As we sit down there is silence. I put my elbows on my knees and fall a sleep with my face in my hands. When I wake up everyone had left, and we had dropped the villains back of at Belle Reve. I stand up and stumble out of the jet. I walk into the kitchen for something to drink. Someone tapped on my back and when I turned around it was robin.

"Sup," I said casually. I held out a carton.

"Juice?" I offered. He shook his head.

"I'm good," He looks at me and he begins to lean down. Before he could kiss me, I cupped my hand over his mouth.

"You already got two kisses today, if I give you any more you'll get spoiled." he wraps his arms around my waist.

"And that's a bad thing?" I blush, cover my face, and push him back a little bit.

"Oh my gosh, you're too perfect." He laughs at my response. I give him a small peck on the cheek.

"And the answer is no," I said as I slipped past him to get a cup for my juice. A gust of wind and a crash brought our attention to Artemis who was sprawled out on the floor. Wally ran in behind. He bent over, putting his hands on his knees as he gasped for air.

"You guys alright?" robin asked. Artemis slowly got up.

"We need to change back! How did you two do it?" she demanded. I nervously rubbed the back of my neck.

"I'm not really sure. Well the only thing we did out of the norm was kiss..." My voice trailed off at the end. Wally whipped around at us.

"Okay, what type of kiss are we talking about? Like kiss on the cheek, blowing a kiss..."

"On the mouth," Robin said leaning against the counter. Both of the other teens groaned and looked at each other.

"This totally doesn't mean anything," Wally said. Both he and Artie's faces were bright red.

"Of course, you'd still annoy the crap out of me, kiss or no kiss."

"Stop stalling you two and just do it." They glared at me.

"DON'T RUSH US!" they yelled in unison. The eyed each other and then slowly they moved closer together. And then their faces tilted and slowly pulled closer and closer. The gap between their faces barely a hair away and then they kissed. Honestly for two people who "hated each other's guts" they both seemed to be enjoying it. In sync robin and I took our cameras out of our utility belt and snapped a pick.

"Hey!" Artemis yelled, breaking the kiss.

"Not cool, dude!" Wally confirmed. I looked to Robin, who had disappeared, and teleported away.

"Hahaha! I'm totally putting this on Facebook! Then you'll be official!" I called back. The two's yelling and shrieks faded as I teleported farther and farther away with a smile on my face.

**Oh, the Lovebirds. They're such trolls.**

**KEEP READING IF YOU LOVE YOUNG JUSTICE: if haven't heard already, Cartoon Network is going to end Young Justice after the end of this season. In the immortal words of Tim Drake: if we go down, we go down fighting. Meaning: spam the Cartoon Network page with POLITE comments. Send in POLITE comments through the feedback on the website. Mail POLITE letters to the headquarters. All of this info can be found everywhere on tumblr. Turn on the TV for the ENTIRE DC Nation block (because they're cutting Green Lantern too, and we gotta stick together) and then before turning the TV off, change it to another channel so they know you watched it specifically for DC Nation. There are two petitions going around on (take out the parentheses), sign both. And if you want, dress up as your favorite character and stand POLITELY outside the CN headquarters. You'll notice a them is politeness. Yelling and cursing is for expressing mutual anger to other fans, not the head honchos. Being rude is not going to make them change anything. Peacefully expressing our feelings are. Also, they say they're taking YJ down for not selling enough merchandise, so buy t-shirts, DVDs, episodes on iTunes, whatever you can get your hands on. Send messages daily. We have a great show here, let's have at least three seasons guys! Think of the Spitfire babies you want to see!**


	21. Chapter 21

**This is basically a fluff chapter, and not worth the extra wait, but I was recovering from chocolate overload Friday night, and we left bright and early Saturday morning and I haven't had internet until basically now.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice or its characters, just Tori and Kate, and any villains specified.**

I grab a book and curl up in the chair. The library has to be my favorite place in the cave. It just feels so calm and quiet. Sometimes I'll stay in here for hours in the same position, just reading. I open the book. It's about Atlantis. What can I say? It's an interesting place. Someone puts their hands over my eyes.

"I know it's you Kaldur," I giggle. He pulls his hands away, and I crane my head to look at him. He leans down and kisses me lightly, and I smile up at him. He pulls away but keeps his head close to my face.

"More Atlantis?" Kaldur asks, glancing at the cover of my book. I nod. "How would you like to come on a visit?" I bounce out of my seat, staring at him in both excitement and disbelief.

"Really? When?"

"Would now be an appropriate time?" I'm halfway out the door the moment he finishes his sentence. I turn back around.

"Just give me a minute to find a way to breathe underwater!" I call over my shoulder, dashing to my room. I head to my personal bookshelf, where I keep paperback copies of all my favorites, and my books on magic. "No, that's not it..." I mutter picking up a book from the middle of the shelf and scanning the spine. I move my finger across the other books reading and rereading the titles. A few times I get distracted and start reading parts of certain books.

"Gyah, I don't have time for this," I mutter to myself as I stop procrastinating and put my books back in their respectful places. I continue to shuffle through all of the books again and within a few minutes, I find a technique that separates hydrogen from the oxygen in the water, allowing me to breathe, along with one that will lessen the pressure of the water. And a bonus is a way to waterproof your clothes.

I press the palms of my hands together, fingers spread wide, then perform the spells. I sit for a minute to steady myself before running back to the library, where Kaldur is still waiting.

"Ready!" I tell him. He smiles, and takes my hand as we walk to the zeta tube. He starts punching in the code.

"You may want to take off your shoes," he comments, glancing over at me.

"Oh yeah," I reply. Sitting down, I pull off my boots and socks, setting them neatly aside. The floor is cold against my bare feet, and I have a sudden wave of nervousness. What if I make a total fool of myself?

Kaldur slips his hand into mine again, and I relax a little.

"Ready?" I nod. He walks through, and I wait a few moments before following. I close my eyes against the flash of light, and open them to an entirely different world.

Light filters down from way above, turning the whole area into a multitude of deep blues. I never knew there were so many shades. Spiraling towers stretch up like they're trying to break the surface, lights piercing out from windows. Tall plants wave in the currents, tiny fish darting in and out of the strands. I can't do anything but smile.

"Do you like it?" Kaldur places his hand on my shoulder.

"I just…it's so…thank you," I finally reply. My eyes follow the silvery bubbles up to the surface. A shark glides past, and it feels like the temperature drops ten degrees. It circles us, getting closer and closer. Before I can shrink back, it's between Kaldur and me, its rough skin scraping against me. I squeeze my eyes shut.

"Kaldur," I whimper.

"It's alright. She's just looking at the newcomer," he assures me. After a few more circles, the shark finally swims off. I let out a sigh of relief.

"That was scary."

"Scarier than dangling over a vat of lava?" Kaldur smiles.

"You remember that?" I ask. He nods, and I shake my head in disbelief. "I barely remember that."

"I guess you just stick in my head." He leans down, and I instinctively tilt my head up. Someone clears their throat, and we jump apart. I can tell I'm blushing. I turn around, and my eyes land on a boy and girl my age. The boy is handsome, with dark hair and clothing, and the girl is just as beautiful. Pale, with red hair, light blue eyes, and faint freckles, her yellow crop top and skirt complement her tones perfectly.

"Garth, Tula!" Kaldur exclaims. He rushes forward, pulling the boy into a hug. Then he hugs the girl, although for a slightly shorter time. I tug at the hem of my shirt, suddenly nervous, and a little jealous. _"Stop it. Kaldur's dating _you_, remember?"_ I step, er, swim, forward. "This is Kate," Kaldur introduces me. I lift my hand shyly. Tula engulfs me in a hug. I stiffen before hesitantly hugging her back.

"You must be Kaldur's girlfriend!" she pulls back and winks at me. I blush.

"Um, yeah…"

"Garth, come say hello!" Tula turns to the boy. He swims over and shakes my hand. "This is my boyfriend, Garth." We smile awkwardly at each other. "Ooh, I have an idea! Come with me!" she says, tugging on my hand. I follow, smiling as she waves the boys off. We swim for a while. I'm almost able to match Tula's pace but in order to I need to use a lot of energy and effort. We swim for a while, stopping at tall building.

"These are the student dorms," Tula informs me.

"Where do you study?" I ask politely.

"The Conservatory of Sorcery. That's where I met Garth and Kaldur."

"I have control over magic as well."

"Maybe we can spar after this," she grins.

"What is 'this,' anyway?" She leads me through the door.

"You'll see." Tula leads me into an atrium. I look up. There are lots of stories above us, wrapping around the edge. There's no staircase, I suppose because you can just swim up. Tula leads the way to a room on the third floor. Brushing aside a blue curtain, we swim inside. I can tell it's her room immediately, because it fits what I know about her. Soft but bright colors, mainly yellow, and a stack of scrolls on a desk.

"How do you keep the ink from running?" I finger the nearest scroll. It's all in Atlantean.

"We have a spell now, but before that, they wrote the scrolls on the surface, let them dry, and then covered them with a special sealant. Now come here." Tula pulls back another curtain, revealing the niche where she keeps her clothes. She grabs a dark blue crop top with purple trim and a matching sarong, and hands them to me.

"What are these for?" I ask.

"For you to wear. You're in Atlantis, might as well dress like you are." With that, she turns around, giving me a little privacy.

_"How am I supposed to conceal my knives in this?" _I think as I change quickly, shivering a little as the water brushes over my skin. I shuffle them around, managing to place most of them underneath cloth.

"I'm done," I tell Tula. She spins around, smiling.

"You look amazing!" she exclaims.

"Really?" I ask, tugging at the hem of my shirt, which ends a few inches above my belly button. I've never worn something so…revealing.

"Yes, really! Just wait until Kaldur sees you!" I blush deeply at the thought.

"Um, how about that spar now?" I ask, desperate for a change of subject.

"Sure! We can go to the Conservatory. Come on." We swim in a comfortable silence. We end up a huge building with lots of rotundas.

"Wow," I breathe. Tula smiles at my wonder.

"The training area is up on the roof." We swim upwards, coming to a flat spot that stretches almost the entirety of the building. "Whoever is unable to fight the first loses." I nod at the terms. We each scoot back a little. Almost immediately, she releases a cloud of magic shaped like piranhas. I spin out of the way, but just barely. Okay, it's harder to move in the water, so I have to react faster. I raise my hands, and sliver flames dance around Tula. She shoots electricity, breaking the flames apart. I push myself up to avoid the blast. Thinking of Sparrow, I form a large wolf with my magic, sending it charging at her. She envelopes it in something with tentacles, then turns towards me. I shoot myself forward, placing a knife along her neck right before she brings the tentacle-y mass down on my head.

"Tie?" I ask. She nods, and we step back. "You were good, I'm going to have to remember some of those moves."

Tula smiles. "You showed a lot of creativity."

"You both did a good job," a new voice says. A woman in green with red hair is on the sidelines. What catches my attention is the large gold crown.

"Thank you Queen Mera," Tula replies, swimming over to her. I follow hesitatingly. "This is Kate." I bow.

"It's nice to meet you Your Highness."

"And you as well."

"She came here with Kaldur," Tula explains.

"Oh, did you, now?" Queen Mera smiles knowingly, and I blush. "It's nice to meet the girl who's captured Kaldur'ahm's heart." I turn even redder. "Would you like to go into the city with us? I'm sure Tula here wouldn't mind helping me give you a tour." Tula's smile widens and she claps.

"Um, okay," I say. I definitely want to see more of this beautiful city.

"Then it's settled. Let's go." Tula races off to the rest of the city with the queen and me in tow. As we swim by, the nearest Atlanteans greet me with kindness. Luckily, I'm able to understand and respond to them in short phrases I had learned from my books. The buildings still look amazing, each window filled with a soft, warm glow. Just as we were looking at some of the jewelry in the market Garth swims towards us.

"Kaldur wanted me to tell you to meet him back at the zeta tube. Something about your team? Oh, and he said to hurry," Garth reports to me.

"Thank you," I tell him, a small frown appearing on my face.

"I'll take you back," Tula volunteers. We swim away. "What do you think is wrong?" she asks.

"I don't know," I reply, biting my lip. We swim a little faster after that. I shouldn't worry. It's probably just a mission, right?

"Here we are," Tula says, bringing me out of my thoughts.

"You can go back, if you want to," I tell her.

"Can I?" Relief floods her face. "I don't like being away from the queen for too long, not after the attack. It was nice meeting you." She hugs me, then swims away. I don't have to wait long for Kaldur to show up.

"What's wrong?" I ask him.

"I don't know, I just got an emergency call from Robin." Worry spreads through me. Kaldur punches the coordinates in, and we swim through the zeta tube.

**Yeah, review. And a cliffie, I'm so evil. Mwahahaha. Ha. And oh my stars, the FEELS from this episode! At first I was like "oh okay, another episode." But then there was sassy Mal and I was busting my cheeks laughing, and then the Reach had to pull out their armada and I was like "spin that off Godfrey! In yo face!" And then I saw Cassie and was like "yay, Wonder Girl, I love you so much!" And then there was the heartfelt scene with Mal and Karen and I was like "guys just cuz you're planning on ending the show doesn't mean your writing has to go down the drain." And then Cassie kissed Arsenal on the cheek and I was like "she's totally doing that to make Jaime jealous." And then Jaime went evil and I got into whimper mode, along with a few insertions of "not my baby!" thrown in there. So then I watched the Runaways episode to cheer myself up, and I realized something important: every time Tye starts a sentence with "dude," it's going to lead to some hilarious saying/facial expression combos. I turned it off after Eduardo teleported with his father, because after that it goes spiraling into sad feelings.**


	22. Chapter 22

**A very merry unbirthday to me! And whoever else isn't celebrating the day they came into this marvelous and wacked world. Sorry about the day late. I have no excuse except laziness and a penchant for tumblr. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice or any of the characters except Kate and Tori.**

**Tori**

"Ugh." I groan at my throbbing headache. One of the two burly men who are dragging me through a hallway had cracked me over the head with their gun. They both wear gas masks and have heavy duty guns strapped to their backs. I try to teleport away but the heavy collar around my neck stops me. It looks like one of the collars they have in Belle Reve that restricts people's powers. Anger and irritation rise up in my chest and I lash out at one of the guards. He steps back and drops my arm just as I planned. Unfortunately the other guard grips my hand tighter and yanks me to him with enough force to practically dislocate my arm, and he punches me in the stomach. All of my air flies out and I crumple on the ground trying to catch my breath. The first guard clicks a button on a remote and a flow of electricity shoots through my body. I scream in pain as I lose control of my body and black out on the floor.

When I open my eyes I'm chained down in a chair in an empty room. The chair looks as if it's bolted to the floor. I notice that my utility belt is gone. The only thing I can do is try to remember what had happened before I had gotten captured.

"Right, we were taking Scarecrow to jail and then..." My eyes widen as I realize what had happened.

"THAT CREEP SPRAYED ME IN THE FACE AND HIS HENCHMAN COLLARED ME AND HIT ME OVER THE HEAD!" I yell. A sudden hissing sound fills the room. I begin to angrily rock in my chair hoping to break the legs. A cloud of green, misty gas filled the room.

_"NO!NO! NO! NO!" _I mentally scream. I look for anything that would help me, and my eyes fall on my emblem. I quickly bite my cape and pull the emblem to my lips. I move my tongue and teeth until I find a small switch on the back. It serves as both a distress signal to Batman and Robin and a transmitter.

"Help... ME!" I scream as the emblem falls. I choke on the gas as I fill my lungs. I clench my eyes shut and continue to yell.

"HELP! HEEEELLPPPP! HE-AHHHHHHHHH!" I shriek as the collar goes off again. There's a whisper going through my head and I open my eyes to see that the room had changed into a large white room. It becomes very difficult to see where the room ends. My shadow appears on the ground, but there's something wrong with it.

I scream as I realize its head is chopped off. The glow of the white room flickers as if it's powered by a giant lightbulb and it's burning out. A figure appears in the center of the room.

"No," I say under my breath. My eyes are as wide as they can be. The figure is a tall man with dark blue scales, four arms, and four wings. Straight black hair is messily covering his face. Two of the wings cover his face and the other two keep him afloat. He holds a sword in one arm and a shepherd's crook in the other. The only clothes he wears is a sash, shoulder pads, and loincloth decorated in small and large skulls. I push myself back in the chair hard. There's a creak as the legs are strained against my weight before they snap. My heartbeat and breathing quicken as I slide away from the figure and to the closest wall. This man is death personified.

There's a creak above us and a hatch opens dropping a pile of bodies. I peer closer to see they're all my friends. I scream and jump onto my feet, smashing the chair against the wall until it breaks. The chains fall to the ground and I run to the walls, trying to find a door. The figure murmurs something and begins moving forward. I scream even louder frantically looking for an escape.

Just then, I realize something. I take a deep breath, and remember where I am. Nothing that I'm seeing is real; it's all hallucinations caused by fear gas. I glare at Death, who's most likely Scarecrow, with my best Batglare imitation. He doesn't seem fazed and opens his mouth to speak.

"You know, I can let you out of here. All you need to do is tell me the League's secrets," a raspy voice says. I glare at an empty space of white.

"You must think I'm as dumb as you look, if you think I'd sell out the League. You see I've got a little thing called loyalty! I'd die with the secrets of my higher ups before I give you or anyone like you th- AHHHHHH!" I fall to my knees as I'm shocked again. I manage a laugh.

"You'll have to do better than that." I lift my head and stick my tongue out at the villain. In anger he runs at me and kicks me against the wall.

"Shut up, you brat! Or else I'll fry you're brain!" I simply laugh again in response, knowing that my team would come save me. As if on cue an alarm goes off and the room is drowned in flashing red.

"It seems like we have company. Let's see how they like the fear gas," he cackles as he walks over to a panel in the wall. He types in two separate codes. The first code, I guess, is to release the fear gas on my friends, who I hope have respirators on them. The second opens a door on the wall. In rushes two goons who looks a lot like the hellish creatures who live in the thick forests of my planet. They both growl, then pick me up and carry me out of the room and through many corridors. They finally stop at a door which one kicks open. The fresh air clears my head and makes everything stop looking like a hellish nightmare. They run to a getaway van, and one of them, who just so happens to be holding my upper body drops me and unlocks the door. I grunt as my head hits the gravel and snarl at the other guard while scratching at him. I'm thrown into the van. One of them hops in followed by two others wearing identical uniforms and Scarecrow. Before I can try anything the first one chains me down to a bench. I kick and pull at the chains trying to get myself free. The guard points his gun at me.

"No more of that," he growls as the vehicle starts moving. I feel the change from gravel to pavement in a matter of moments. There are a lot of potholes and every time we hit one my chains chafe my skin. I snarl, changing my teeth into fangs and gnawing at the metal. The guard prods me with his gun and I stop.

Suddenly, there's a crash and the vehicle swerves, throwing both the villains and me like feathers in a box. There's a grunt and two of the guards stand. They unlatch the door and hop out of the back. Scarecrow also leaves, although he isn't going the same way as the men. This leaves the guard with the gun alone.

_"Perfect."_ I whisper a chant softly and my whole body changes into light particles along with my clothes. The guard searches around looking for me and when I return to my solid state in front of him, he's shocked. I snatch his gun before he can react and crack it over his head. He slumps in his seat and I take the chains from around the bench and pin him down.

"Nighty night." I whisper as I leave the containment unit. When I step out something is thrown at me. I catch it right before it hits my face. It's my utility belt. I turn to see Batman fending off two of the goons. I snap on the belt and jump on one of the guards pulling him to the ground. I take some smoke pellets from one of my many pouches and crush them in my fist. He struggles, the gas stinging his eyes. I pin him down and punch him in the face twice, knocking him out. I see Batman drop his guy, who's unconscious, on the ground.

"I saw Scarecrow head northeast back towards the building," I call back to Batman as we tie up the men and run back towards the building. I grab hold of Batman's arm and quickly teleport us back to the area I saw Scarecrow run. We catch a glimpse of him just as he turns the corner. We follow, but I start to slow down. I grip my side and fall on my knee. Batman keeps running and then shoots his grappling hook up. There's a hollow clinking sound as it wraps around a pole or something and Batman swings away. Judging by the scream, Batman had tackled Scarecrow and they were now fighting. I lightly touch my side and wince. I'm either bruised very badly or something is broken.

"Hopefully Kate can fix this," I mutter to myself. I whistle for Bandersnatch and climb on his back.

"Take me to my friends, boy." He barks and runs through many shadows until we finally make it back to the team, who's clearing out the building. His form flickers before fading and dropping into the floor. I sit up to see a bunch of unconscious guards lying on the ground or slumped in corners. I jerk forward and cough, holding my side.

"Oh, Sparrow, are you alright!" Megan cries as she runs over and throws her arms around my neck.

"Owowowowow! Thathurtspleaseletgonow!" I grimace. Megan releases me.

"Hello, Megan! You're injured!" she smiles.

"To answer your question, I don't think anything is broken besides my pride." I roll my shoulders back, still sore.

"Here, I'll help," Kate says as she begins using her magic to patch me up. She's in a crop top and skirt? Oops, looks I interrupted an Atlantis date.

"We heard what you said about your loyalty," Kaldur comments as everyone crowds around me. I rub the back of my neck nervously.

"Oh, yeah...well, I meant it. I love this team, and wouldn't do anything to harm it." Robin puts a hand on my shoulder and smiles at me. I grin back and look at everyone else who looks relieved. We wait a little while until Kate finishes.

"Done," she says leaning back confidently. Just then Batman walks out of the darkness with an unconscious Scarecrow.

"Good, I'll contact the League to bring this scum to jail. Everyone head back to the cave." We all nod before heading back to the bioship.

"Thanks for coming back to get me," I mutter to Robin.

"Any time," he whispers back, wrapping an arm around my shoulder. I sigh and lean in.

**Yeah, this is really just a reason to wrap up the previous chapter. But never fear, we have a plan! Reviews are appreciated as unbirthday gifts. Also, we have a tumblr page, called askthetwonewbies. Have I mentioned this before? Oh well, I forget. Shadow is getting desperate, so please go check it out!**


	23. Chapter 23

**Sorry about last week, I just really needed to catch up on sleep. Thank Shadow for this one, she's the one that finished it.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice or the characters besides Kate, Tori, and any specified others.**

"Hey, Sparrow, want to come do something with me?" I ask the alien girl. She's in her temporary room at the cave, messing around at the desk. I leaned against the doorway.

"What do you want to do?" she asks, not looking up. She seems to have some papers with her and is frantically writing on them.

I shrug. "I dunno. Something. Anything." She glances at me and smiles deviously.

"We can go spy on people in Gotham?" she suggests.

"Fine with me."

"Let me just mail these letters."

"Who are they for?" I ask, walking over and looking at them. They're not in English. In fact the character she used looked more like some sort of strange hieroglyphics. She had gone over the shapes many times so that they would be bold.

"My niece and her friend."

"You have a niece?" I ask, shocked. Sparrow didn't talk much about her family, so any information is a little useful in getting to know my friend better.

"Yeah, oldest bro had a wife. I honestly didn't know I had a niece either until a while ago. The two girls really want to visit Earth one day, and they love to hear about it."

"I didn't know they had mail to Shadowland," I comment.

"Yeah, there's a Shadowlander I know that lives here and goes back once a week or so to deliver mail and stuff." She shrugs casually while folding the papers and stuffing them into a large envelope.

"How many Shadowlanders live on Earth?"

"Last time I heard, a little over two thousand." I gulp, thinking of that many Sparrows running around. She licks the seal and stamp and slaps it onto the upper right corner.

"I'll be back in a few minutes. Then we can go have some fun, m'kay." I nod and she walks out of the room, grabbing her jacket on the way out. I sigh and go back to wandering around the cave while I wait. I pause outside of Kaldur's door, which is ajar. I tap lightly on it, and it swings open all the way, with a loud creek. He isn't in. I step inside, shivering a little. Kal had cranked his air condition on full blast leaving the room freezing cold. I like the colder temperatures better too, but Kaldur is crazy. I grab one of his jackets off of his bed and pull it on. Oh, much better. I pull the collar up over my face and take a deep whiff. I smile at the familiar smell of the sea.

An alarm blares. _"Intruder alert. Intruder alert. Intrud-."_ The announcement cuts off abruptly. I stand in shock for a moment before taking off for the main room. A huge monster is there, chomping at the air. His fangs look about the size of my index finger. Bright yellow eyes rimmed with black dart around, looking for something. Long black horns stab through the top of his head and curve inwards. He is about twice my size. His hands are disproportionally large. They look like they could crush my head in one squeeze. His standing position looks more like a slouch, as if he's propped up on his knuckles. His grey hair iss slicked back. I gulp, but pull out a knife and throw it. It nicks the thing's shoulder, drawing its attention to me. I automatically take a few steps back before catching myself. It growls and charges. I quickly roll out of the way. I conjure a wall of magic and the creature slams into it. Two blue whips wrap around it and shove it across the room. I shoot a grateful smile at Kaldur, who has joined the fight, along with the rest of the team.

We tag team the creature, trying our best to wear it out. Megan sends a psychic blast at the monster. It stumbles back before composing itself and roaring at us. Yellow wings split out of his back. On them are black and gray glass like feathers. His eyes glow yellow and he swings his arms around, creating a black circle on the floor. He smashes his fists on the ground and the ring shoots up and divides into three rings. Megan sends another blast at it, but it's blocked by the rings which shatter. The monster slashes the air with his massive paw and a surge of energy knocks Megan back into the wall. Connor snarls and lunges at the man, Artemis shoots arrows around Superboy to cover him. The monster knocks aside all of the arrows and grabs Superboy's arm making him disappear. There's a loud yelp and I turn to see that Conner had reappeared and had been thrown into Megan, both are unconscious.

Artemis continues shooting but the man makes the arrows disappeared first. He flicks his wrist and they appear again aimed straight at Artemis. One with explosives in it hits her back. As she tries to regain her center a gas arrow hit her in the arm. There's a hiss and a thud and Artemis has fallen too. Wally starts running around the monster. He starts picking up dust and the wind around the man begins to speed up. In a matter of moments a tornado is formed around the guy. His form starts to flicker and disappear. Wally stops running and steps back from the tornado, a confident grin on his face. His minor victory is short lived because a large hand shoots out of the tornado and latches onto KF's face. The tornado fades and the monster stands in the center, unscathed except for his hair, which is sprayed everywhere. He uses his free hand to slick it back. We all gasp, afraid of what might happen if we dare move. The monster tosses KF into the air and catches him around the waist. He jerks him around in the air a few times before slamming him into the ground and kicking him to the side with his foot.

"KID!" Robin cries. He nods to Kaldur and me. Kaldur's tattoos glow and his water bearers come out. We both charge at the monster. I try to give Kaldur as much cover as I can, but every shield I pull up is quickly torn down by the man's claws. Kaldur wraps the water around the man's arm and send volts of electricity through it. The man raises his arm to swipe at Kaldur but I enchant a few of my knives and shoot them at his face, this time drawing some blood. A thick yellow liquid seeps through his cut. Finally provided with the distraction he needed, Robin drops down from the ceiling.

"I hope you like the taste of being whelmed. Today's special is gas flavor." Robin sticks a string of knock-out gas bombs on the man's chest. The intervals in between the beeps grow shorter and he backflips off the monster, landing on his feet as they go off. The gas spews into the man's face and he stumbles forward, his upper body weight still on his arms. A tail is now noticeable and it lashes violently.

"No," I whisper as the man's eyes yellow glow pierces through the smoke.

"I'm done playing games," the man says, his voice was very deep and a second sound erupted from it as he spoke. It sounded like a low throaty growl. The man hisses before snapping his wings open fully, his eyes glowing brighter. The glass feathers glisten before black beams shoot out of them. Suddenly, I can't see. There's a soft clinking sound and I whirls around blindly. Someone cries out, Robin. Kaldur grunts as he too falls. I scream as I feel the cool touch of metal against my leg. It crawls up my leg and around my waist. A second chain wraps around my arms and forces me on my knees. Light floods back into my eyes and I see that we're all wrapped in black chains or unconscious. Kaldur is collapsed near me. It seems like he had predicted where the chains might have hit me and moved in the way to try to protect me. I look at the man who's in the center of the floor, pacing. I blink, taking in the fact that it's wearing formal men's clothes. That's all the time it, or he I suppose, needed to wrap my chains tighter. I struggle against them, but there's not much I can do. The monster smiles, showing large teeth.

"I must say, I expected more of a fight," he comments, nudging Megan with a clawed foot. Wally growls, but the monster just laughs. He walks around, commenting on each of us in turn.

"Too brash," he tells Conner. "You focus more on retorts than fighting," goes to Robin. "Useless weapon in close range combat," he says to Artemis, who snarls. "And this one," he starts, looking down at Kaldur, "is much too sacrificing." I looked down, ashamed I couldn't save myself.

"Who are you anyway?" I snap. He turns to me.

"And you, little girl," he starts, picking me up and holding me upside down. "You're just so weak."

"What?" I ask, shocked.

"Puny. Small. Helpless," he smiles, shaking me a little.

"Hey!" someone yells. "Put her down!" Shadows swarm us, and he drops me. I grunt, but quickly roll out of the way, smiling as I spot Sparrow. But then he raises his hand, and the shadows freeze. Sparrow struggles, but is unable to move them.

"Torrance Reeds?" he asks.

"Yes?" she replies. He morphs into a human, his hair black and still slicked back, and his eyes still yellow. Of course! He's a Shadowlander. I don't know why I didn't see that before.

"My name is Balthazar Houm. I'm here to take you for your training to become a Royal Guard," he tells her.

"I thought I still had more time," she says, walking over to me and tugging on the chains. They fall off, and I hug her. She walks over to Wally, and I untangle Artemis.

"I have come here to evaluate this team, to see if you're receiving the proper training for this stage of your Guardianship." He follows her as she moves on to Conner and Robin. I prod Megan's mind with my magic, waking her up. Kneeling next to Kaldur, I shake him. His eyes open.

"Did we succeed?" he asks. I shake my head no. "I'm just glad you're safe." I smile, giving him a hug as he sits up.

"He says his name is Balthazar. He's a Shadowlander here to evaluate us, to see if Sparrow is getting proper training." Everyone stands as he turns to address all of us.

"So far, the evaluation is poor."

"Hey!" Sparrow yells, "It's not fair for you to barge in here and just attack my friends."

"On the contrary, I was completely fair. In fact, I might have been at a disadvantage." Conner scoffs as he shakily stands up and dusts himself off before helping Megan up. "This is true. The odds were eight against one, each of you were armed with either your power or some artificial weapons, and we were fighting on you "home turf." He says this last phrase quite awkwardly. Sadly, all of his pointers are true. Sparrow rolls her eyes. "Why? Do you think you would do better back on Shadowland?" Sparrow smirks and runs a hand through her hair.

"Yeah." The team and myself all look at her in shock. From what Sparrow had told us before about her planet, it didn't seem like any of us would be able to breathe let alone fight on her planet, except for Megan, but it seemed like her psychic blasts had little to no effect on the man. "But, only if they are prepared with the necessities of basic survival," Sparrow continues.

"I thought you might try to argue about something like this, so," the man pulls a necklace out of his coat pocket, "Here's something that can change someone into a Shadowlander. Unfortunately, I only have one." Sparrow still glares at him.

"Okay, then I choo-"

"No, no, no. You chose the place so I get to choose the players. And I choose," his eyes scan over out battered team before they land on me," The weak one." Everyone turns to me and my face heats up. I angrily stomp up to the man and snatch the necklace from him. I put it on and immediately feel a sharp jolt go through my spine. My stomach begins to hurt along with my teeth and head. The roof of my mouth starts to bleed as a second row of teeth pierce though. A strong pressure extends through my lower back and I feel something flick me in the ear. A tail wiggles in my face. I squint my eyes as everything starts to get brighter. I quickly take off Kaldur's jacket as the temperature increases as well. I stand tall and keep my balance on my new haunches. It feels a lot like wearing heels. Seeing that I'm okay, sparrow nods to the man. He put a hand on both of our shoulders. As soon as he touches us colors and lights start flickering past my vision, I feel like I'm falling and my body is being stretched. We stop abruptly. I feel a little dizzy, but still manage to look around.

We're in a wide open space. The air feels colder here and the pressure is lighter. The ground is a dark gray along with what I assume is the Shadowlander equivalent of grass. Everything else is black. Small animals fly around, a little of them glowing and shedding light on the darkness.

"Kate!" Sparrow brings me back. Balthazar holds a chain whip in his hand. There are pointy spikes and a sharp blade on the end. Sparrow holds her scythe.

"Final match Kate. Admire the landscaping later." I nod. I know how to use the powers a little, because Sparrow had taught me some just in case we ever ran into Soulswap again. Balth cracks his neck and leaps in the air. Sparrow follows and kicks at him. He catches her foot and throws her back. She flips and lands, skidding on her feet. She looks back at me expectantly. I pull a knife off my leg and a bunch of shadow knives appear around me.

"Cool!" I squeal. Sparrow kneels down and cups her hands. I race forward and hop into her hands. She launches me into the air. I pull a second knife off me. Shadows build around it and make the blade bigger.

_"I'm starting to like these powers." _I start a series of slashes at the man. He blocks them with the whip and begins cracking it in the air. It shoots forward and I quickly flip back. As I flip I pull my foot back and kick him in the face. Both of us fall to the ground. I teleport safely to the ground but he's met by Sparrow. She jumps to her hands and spins as he falls and kicks him in the face. He slams into a rock pillar. He stands and Sparrow teleports next to him, elbowing him in the face. I follow and punch him back to Sparrow. Balth teleports away and starts to make the rings again. I throw my shadow knife at them, shattering them instantly. Balth snarls and swipes at us, black ripples forming. Sparrow spreads her wings this time. The feathers are small, but still able to absorb the attacks. The blade of her scythe glows and she violently slashes at the man. The waves are thrown out of the blade and Balth barely has time to block them with his arms. His eyes glow brightly like before. Sparrow and I waste no time. We both run at Balth. He hits his whip against the ground. Sparrow jumps and I move to the side. Balth growls and he claps his hands together loudly. Beams of darkness shoot out of his crystal feathers. I throw up a shield, but the beams move around it. I focus and open a portal. The beams disappear.

"Oye, Kate!" Sparrow calls. She teleports above Balth and grabs his horns, pulling his whole body back. I will a shadow block to shoot out of the ground, flipping him over. Sparrow teleports him into the air. I teleport up there too and grab his legs. I bring my leg back and kick him in the face so hard it knocks him completely back. I teleport him back to Sparrow who has a fist waiting for him. He hits the ground with a loud thump, kicking up a lot of dirt. I land on the ground and form shadow blades. I hold them so that they cross each other and begin chanting. A ring of blades emerge around Balth. As he tries to stand more blades appear. Soon he is trapped by an armory's worth of blades. He is unable to move and I approach him boastfully.

"Who's weak and helpless now?" I say with a smirk.

"I guess I can stay on Earth a little longer, huh?" Sparrow calls. Balth mutters something, but I can't hear it. Sparrow walks over.

"Kate, let him out." I sigh, but do it anyways. Balth stands.

"Now, Balthazar, from my time on earth I learned there were at least three other ways you could have escaped that trap. One, teleporting through the ground, two, turning into light particles and fading through the ground, or three, using umbrakinesis to shatter the blades. So, do you still think my training in insufficient? I've learned things there that even you, a Royal Guard, could not think of." Balth looks away defeated.

"Fine, you may stay." He mutters something about paperwork, but that's not important because Sparrow is now energetically dancing a strange dance.

"Whoo! I can stay!" She cries. Balth teleports us back and takes back the necklace. Sparrow rubs her throat.

"Wow, I'm thirsty." We begin walking to the kitchen where I assume the team is waiting. Before we enter I whisper, "So your name is really Torrrance?"

"SHUT UP!" she yells, punching me in the arm.


	24. Chapter 24

**Hey. Sorry it's late, I was procrastinating on posting it. The good news is, the musical is over next week, and so is filming for theatre class, so I'll be able to collaborate with Shadow again.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice.**

**Tori**

"So you guys ready?" Robin asks. He grins up at us, his hands at his side.

"As we'll ever be," I reply, returning the smile and helping Kate onto Bandersnatch. We had finally pinpointed the location of Soulswap. Apparently while in hiding he had gathered supplies that we believed were being used to create a bomb. He was in an underground factory in Kansas where he planned to set off a large bomb underneath the city of Topeka. I didn't exactly understand the point of this, but Kate said it was probably just to have him be noticed by the other criminals.

"But why Kansas?" I had asked.

"Because nobody suspects lil ol' Kansas." I had laughed at that response. As Kate situates herself on Bandersnatch I lean forward on his head, continuing my chat with my boyfriend. Apparently some baddies had received leaked info on the team. There were a lot of speculations but finally it was agreed that none of us would betray the others.

"I still don't get how the bad guys got the information," he sighs, his brows furrowing.

"Well, I'm sure you guys will figure it out. I have faith in you guys," I say with a wink. Bandersnatch barks and gives a long howl.

"It seems that your loyal companion recognizes that it is time for you to depart," Kaldur comments, walking towards us. Kate smiles down sweetly at him. In one fluid movement Kaldur reaches up, takes Kate's hand and kisses it softly. Kate blushes, which is pretty cute. I turn to Robin who in the short amount of time, climbed up on Bandersnatch and is leaning towards me. I pull my head back, a little surprised. He leans even further forward and gives me a peck on the lips.

"Bye," he whispers.

"See ya," I say back. I turn to Kate.

"You ready!" I ask excitedly. A black chain emerges from Bandersnatch's back and wraps around Kate's waist, securing her, and creating an extra loop for her to hold onto. She nods.

"Alright, then here we go!" I open up a large portal and Bandersnatch runs through it. Then I open another and he does the same. I continue to make a series of portals until everything around us is a blur. My wings had fully grown in, but I didn't think that I should use them just yet. A light vibrating draws my attention to one of my back compartments in my utility belt. I take my intercom out of it and begin slowing Bandersnatch down.

"Kate, it's the team," I call back before answering, "Hello?"

"Sparrow, argh." There's a loud noise in the background as Robin grunts.

"Rob, you okay?"

"Yeah, but the League has gone rogue. Some sort of nasty chip has been planted in their brains."

"Do we need to come back?" I ask, concerned.

"No, continue your mission, it's still important to deactivate the bomb. We're all okay, I just wanted to give you and Silver an update. We have to leave the cave and probably won't be able to contact you for a while."

"That's fine, just be safe."

"Will do. Robin out." I turn back to Kate.

"The League has been brainwashed and the team is going to try to fix it," I paraphrase calmly.

"Is Kaldur a-"

"Yes, he's fine," I cut her off, "Robin said we just need to complete our mission. Knowing that they are going against the League we might have to meet up with them back at the Watchtower."

"Whoa whoa whoa. Like the for reals Watchtower Watchtower?" I smirk.

"You as excited about this as I am?" She nods vigorously in response.

"Then let's finish this and go." Bandersnatch gaines speed, dashing faster and faster through the portals until finally, he skids to a halt in the alleyway of Topeka. I jump off and help Kate down. Immediately, Bandersnatch disappears.

"What now?" I ask, looking around.

"We look for a way underground." She holds up a device that has a green grid map and a blinking red dot.

"This is the location Robin pinpointed earlier. So, all we need to do is follow this map." I nod and begin walking out the alley. I spot a manhole in the middle of the street. Unfortunately, there's heavy traffic covering it.

"Well, there's always plan B." I line myself up with the manhole. I open a portal on the ground and walk into it. I bend my knees as I hit the concrete and stand up.

"Come on, Kate!" I yell up. She follows me, but lands a little more to the right. I quickly grab her arm and pull her towards me. She turns back to the sewage she almost falls in.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that that isn't what you want to have on your ALL WHITE UNIFORM," I tell her. She pouts.

"Well if you can have wings yet still feel like it's necessary to wear a cape, I can wear my white costume, THANK you very much." I stifle a laugh.

"I was just kidding Kate," I say. "So where do we go now?" She looks back down at the device and then turns completely around. She walks down the tunnel and after a few moments I follow. She turns right and at the end of the tunnel, she turns right again. She begins sliding her hand along the wall.

"Uh, Kate, I wouldn't touch that if I were you," I warn.

"I'm looking for the secret passage. There has to be some sort of trigger to unlock it."

"Or you could use your witchy powers to find it instead of rubbing your hands against these slimy walls," I snicker. She frowns at my choice of words for her powers before taking her hand off the wall and holding it straight out. There's a flash of silver, and the wall shatters, revealing the passage.

"Let's go," Kate says, waving the device and walking in. As we move farther in, our surroundings got darker and darker. Kate's bracelet glows, lighting the way. Kate starts running and turns left. I hurry after as the light disappears. Immediately I run into a wall. I stumble back holding my nose.

"Ow, geez Kate. Warn me about these things, please."

"Sorry," she calls out. Judging by the sound of her voice, she's a good distance away.

"It's fine, I've got it now." I grunt and change my eyes to my Shadowlander ones. I see stream of greenish blue pass before my eyes. It's Kate's heat signature. Luckily, she isn't too far away so that I won't be able to see it. Usually on Shadowland we use this to hunt down prey. I follow it until a small amount of light from her bracelet reflects in my eyes. I move carefully to follow it. Finally, Kate, comes back into view. She's stopped in front of a door.

"He's on the other side," Kate whispers, putting the tracking device away. She opens the door and we both walk through.

"Whoa," I gasp. In front of us is a large bomb that fills up a majority of the room. Large wires jut out of the side and top and clouds of smoke escape from large holes. I could see again thanks to a bunch of lightbulbs in the ceiling. I swap back to my human eyes and continue to look around. For some reason there are windows on some walls even though the room is located underground. Hunched over a control system is Soulswap himself. He looks up at us and quickly steps away from the machine. He lifts his hands but we know better this time. Kate rushes at him and I teleport away, popping up behind him.

"Fool us once shame on you," I kick him in the back, causing him to stumble forward. "But, fool us twice..."

"Shame on us," Kate grins, kneeing him in the jaw. His head flies back and he crashes on the ground. He looks at both of us before he starts fumbling through his pocket, whipping out a remote and pointing it at both of us. Kate and I stand cautiously with her knives in her hands and my shadow scythe in mine. He presses two of the buttons. First, a door on the far right wall opens, and about four henchmen run out holding guns. Then, a loud beeping sound commences, warning us that the bomb has been set off.

"Rats " I mutter under my breath. The men hold their guns up at us and Soulswap slowly rises to his feet.

"It seems you two are outnumbered and running out of time," he says, snickering evilly before breaking into a cough. "What will you do?" I narrow my eyes at the man and tighten my grip on my scythe slightly.

"This," I snarl. I spin my weapon once before slamming the hilt into the back of Soulswap's head. His knees buckle and he collapses on the ground. I raise my hand and summon tiny little shadow bats to distract the henchmen. They all duck down.

"Silver! I'll take the bomb. Can you handle the henchmen?" She smirks.

"What kind of heroine would I be if I couldn't handle a few measly goons?"

"Ooh, sassy." I laugh and teleport in front of the control panel. I immediately begin searching for a place to plug in my glove. I finally find one in the back of the key panel. I hook up my glove and begin to try to override it. Unfortunately, it looks like I have to disarm the bomb manually.

"Silver, I'll have disarm the bomb myself. If anything goes wrong I need you to put up a really strong barrier around this area and get out of here as quickly as possible, okay?"

"Alright!" she yells back, shooting a guard with a beam from one of her knives.

"Where. To. Start?" I run around the machine, looking it up and down. "Ah." I find a hatch on one of the sides. I create shadow steps and climb up. I take a laser pen from my utility belt and begin making a hole in the side. It takes a while, but once the hole is big enough I jam the blade of my shadow scythe into it. I get a good grip on the handle and jump off the stairs. The circle I carved popped off easier than butter. My eyes widen as I see that inside there were far more wires and lights than I expected. Luckily for me, most of them are the same color. I retrieve my wire cutter from my utility belt. I poke around and try to remember which wire I'm supposed to cut. The blue and yellow striped wire looks familiar and I reach for it.

_"Stop! Clip the stripped wire and it'll detonate!"_ I pause, remembering what Batman said the first time I'd met him.

"But, which one was it?" I mutter to myself, trying to remember.

"The orange!" I exclaim, looking for the wire and spotting it at the very bottom of the panel. I maneuver around the other wires and clip the orange. The bomb gives a loud hiss, a lot like the time before. I sit back on the stairs and sigh in relief. I glance down at Kate who had just finished taking out the last guy.

"I did it," I call down.

"Good job," she replies. I teleport down and begin to cuff the goons and Soulswap.

"So how are we going to go to get to the Watchtower?" she asks. I unclip my cape from around my neck and hand it to Kate.

"Hold this, please." She takes it and I snap my wings out of the slits I had cut into the back of my uniform. I love how the crystal glistens and fractures the light. I walk over with Kate to the farthest part of the room.

"Okay, I'm kind of new to this so I can't exactly teleport like Balthazar, so I have to get a running start. Are you ready?" Kate nods and we begin to run to the opposite side. I grab ahold of Kate's hand, and as I flap my wings the ground disappears from under my feet. I open up crystal passages. I focus and change both Kate's and my body particles into light. We're absorbed into the crystal and shoot out over and over. Finally, we reassemble into our normal state and phase through the walls of the Watchtower. We begin to slow down, just in time to see Kaldur being kissed by Rocket and Robin kissing Zatanna. We solidify and slam into a wall.

"Note to self, work on landing." A wave of nausea washes over me from teleporting so far. I slowly get to my feet and glare at Robin. My hands clench and a knot form in my throat. I take a deep breath and hold back the tears that sting my eyes.

"Way to go Boy Wonder," I hiss angrily.

"Wait, Sparrow! I can ex-" But it's too late. I thrust down my wings and teleport far away. I reappear above the new apartment complex where my old one, where I had lived with Dad, was previously located. I crash one the roof, positive I had just caused a large bruise on my lower back. It's raining, but I don't care. I curl into a ball and pull my cape over me like a blanket. I let my tears out and sob. A sensation rises in my throat. I jerk forward and throw up. I cough and crawl away from the vomit. I lay on the ground, feeling horrible.

**As you can tell, we're wrapping up season one. But we will post the sequel shortly. Once we've decided on the title, I'll tell ya'll.**


	25. Chapter 25

**Hey! Musical's over, so here's a chapter! One more, and then you'll have to wait for the sequel.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice or any characters but Kate, Tori, and Soulswap.**

I sit up from where I had slammed into the wall after Sparrow's teleporting. I slump back down when I realize that the room's spinning. _"Never again,"_ I tell myself. I hear Sparrow's voice, but can't make out the words because it's too low. I push myself up just in time to see her teleport away. I glance around, trying to find what made her left. Robin is staring at the spot where she just was, Zatanna behind him with her hands over her mouth in shock. I squint, and find a smudge of pink lip gloss on Robin's lips. Anger boils up, and I shove myself up, stomping over to him.

"I hope you're happy," I snarl. "Because you're dead." My eyes roam across the room, hurriedly skipping over Megan and Conner's passionate kiss, momentarily pausing on Wally and Artemis, and finally resting on Kaldur. And some girl, Rocket, who was joining the team today, kissing him on the corner of his mouth. I freeze, not believing what I'm seeing.

"I'd better go…um…put Soulswap in a cell," I tell no one in particular. I spin around, hurrying to where we had left Soulswap. I yank him to his feet and pull him down hallways, paying more attention to holding back tears than where I'm going.

_"Stop that,"_ I think. _"It's probably just a little misunderstanding, nothing to get worried about."_ Pausing to blink away the last tears, I realize I have no idea where I am.

"Lost, little girl?" Soulswap asks in a singsong voice. I ignore him, taking us down the hall to the left. "Too upset over your boyfriend? Don't worry, I'm sure you'll find someone else…in thirty years!" He ends his jab with a cackle.

"And I'm sure you'll find someone before you're seventy," I retort. Footsteps sound behind me, and I turn around to see Kaldur running up. I drop Soulswap by the wall and cross my arms, waiting.

"Kate," Kaldur says.

"Kaldur," I reply, trying to keep my voice calm, although a fresh round of stomach butterflies and tears are threatening.

"That wasn't…I didn't….she kissed me, not the other way around. I'm sorry if it seemed like anything else." Smiling, I wrap my arms around him, breathing in his familiar scent.

"I know that," I tell him. "Why would I think anything else about you?" He hugs me back and I relax into him, glad that that little drama is over.

"Well isn't this sweet?" Soulswap drawls. I pull back and wave my hand, a gag materializing in his mouth. Kaldur catches me off guard by kissing my cheek, and I turn bright red. Soulswap rolls his eyes. I tug Kaldur's head down to mine.

"Kate!" someone calls. We both jump back. Robin comes running around the corner. I glare at him. "Have you seen Sparrow? I haven't seen her since…yeah."

"No, the last time I saw her she was teleporting. It was a long distance, but that's all I can tell you."

"I'll go activate the tracker then."

_**Tori**_

I sit down in a rolling chair in the Batcave, checking to make sure it isn't Batman's. I place my bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream on my lap and take a bite. I'd gotten quite tired after teleporting around and crying on the roof, so I went back to the Batcave and changed into some clean clothes. Now I'm sitting and eating ice cream waiting for Robin to get back. I'd been thinking about what I want to say when he comes, but nothing seems to fit right with what I'm feeling. I finish up my ice cream and go upstairs. It's warmer in the house. I sit on the sofa and lean my head back on it.

_"I wonder if this is it for us. No! That's stupid. He's totally going to get it. But..."_

There's a familiar sound of one of the secret passage doors shutting that causes me to turn. Dick walks in, changed into his civvies. He places his glasses down on the kitchen counter before he spots me. I leap over the couch and walk to him.

"Tori, I-" He was cut off by a swift punch to the stomach, making him to double over. He gasps for air and I smack him in the back of the head. Dick shuffles away from me. I growl as he pulls himself into a fighting stance. I take a small step back before rushing at him. He raises his arms as if to block my attack, but at the last minute I spin around, grab his arm and pull him to the ground. I grab his other arm and pin him down. I sit on his stomach, careful not to put all my weight on him, but just enough so he couldn't get up. Suddenly, I'm hit over the head. I turn to see Alfred holding a rolled newspaper in his hand.

"No roughhousing in the manor." I grumble a little, but get off Dick and sit on the sofa. He follows me and sits on the other side. There's an awkward pause.

"T-" he starts again but I cut him off.

"No. Just listen first, because I feel like if I don't say this first I'll get angry with you again." He shuts up and folds his hands in his lap.

"Look, what you did back there really hurt me. It was like a huge dagger through my chest, especially since Zee said she'd quit her flirting. I don't think I want to know you're reason for kissing her just...do you like her?"

"What?"

"Like, do you like her more than you like me?"

"No." he said this in a way that made me smile a little. "I'm sorry we did that, and I'm especially sorry that we hurt you. That I hurt you. I swear that I won't happen again and..."

"Dude!" I say loudly, grabbing the sides of his face. "It's cool. I forgive you."

"R-really?" he looks at me in disbelief. His beautiful blue eyes look relieved.  
>"Yeah, I don't want us to end up like those guys in teen dramas with sour breakups and always angry with one another." He smiles and chuckles a little, resting his head on top of mine. "Besides," I continue, looking up at him. "I punched you in the stomach pretty hard."<p>

"Psh, you didn't hit me that hard."

"Ha," I scoff, "please you looked like you were about to throw up." He laughs loudly and I laugh with him.

"Speaking of punches, the team took on the Justice League." My jaw drops as eyes widen.

"Duuuude. Like even Batman and Superman." He nods. I spin around and rest against his chest. "Okay, you're telling me this story." He leans back.

"But, don't you want to tell me about your mission?" I wave it off.

"I just stopped a bomb from making a city plode."

"Plode?" He grins.

"Like explode or implode. Because we didn't know what type of bomb it was except it was a bomb." Dick ruffles my hair.

"Nice word." I smooth it back into place.

"Thank you, now your story."

"Okay, okay. So it pretty much all started when you two left..."

**Review, please!**


	26. Chapter 26

**Hey! Sorry about no update Friday, but I was grounded. But. Last chapter guys!**

** Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice or any characters but Tori and Kate.**

**Kate**

**One Year Later**

I roll my shoulders, ready to fight. For some reason, Tori wanted to fight the entire team at once. This is the fourth round, and she still hasn't succeeded. The rest of us are ready to stop, but she won't give up.

"One last time, then we'll stop, I promise," Tori says.

_"Okay, who wants to act as decoy?"_ Megan says over the link.

_"I will,"_ Wally replies. He speeds forward, running around Tori while staying just out of reach. While Tori is trying to grab Wally with shadows, Conner tosses Robin up in the air. He lands on the rafters and disappears into the darkness. Artemis shoots an arrow, but Tori dodges and it hits Wally instead. Hardening foam is released, trapping Wally.

"C'mon babe! Really?" he whines.

"Sorry!" Artemis replies. A shadow wraps around my ankle, dragging me towards Tori. I slash at it with magic. The shadow disappears from the intense light. I crawl back, standing when I'm far enough away. There's a loud crackle, and a black portal opens above us. We back away, Megan shattering the foam around Wally so he can join us.

A figure drops down from the portal. It shifts into a smaller form as the portal fades.

"Hello, Torrance," the man says. He looks familiar.

"Balthazar?" Tori asks, jolting my memory.

"It's time for you to return to Shadowland. I'll let you say your good-byes," Balthazar tells her. She's still for a moment, but then shakes her head and walks to us. She goes down the line, hugging everyone and whispering something in their ear. Finally, it's my turn. I squeeze her tight.

"You had better write. Every day, you got that?" I tell her. She nods. "See ya later." Tori steps back. Robin jumps down from the rafters, landing in front of her. They kiss, and I look away to give them privacy.

There's another loud crackle as Balthazar opens the portal, and I look up in time to wave to Tori. The green light fades. Robin leaves first, muttering something about going to tell Batman. The others leave as well, until it's just Kaldur and me. He walks over and hugs me, and I allow myself a few tears. He kisses the top of my head. I pull back and smile.

"C'mon, let's get something to eat," I say. He wraps his arm around my shoulders and we leave the room.

**And that's a wrap! However, don't cry yet, because there's a sequel! Shadow and I will post it once we're both done with school, which will be soon. And, if you want to find out things Shadow and I deem non-spoilers, check out our tumblr: .com just take out the parentheses. The sequel will be called More Than Two. Bye, and review! I'd really like to hit at least 80 reviews.**


	27. Announcement

**Just an informative that the sequel is up under the name of **_**Not So New**_**. It can be found on my profile.**


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